Yes, I know. I have been blathering about “Finding Patience: The Story of Holly Springs” for a while now. With the show run happening this week and next, I am just about done touting it. But, if you know me, you know that I’m an evidence-based person, especially about the place-based ideas that I endorse or stamp as “City Doctor Approved.”
So I’m going to use this edition of Call Me Katherine to get personal about my own journey through the course of this show. I won’t bother to go into the strong friendships Grace and I have forged with members of the cast and crew. But they have been significant and I imagine will last a lifetime.
Instead, I’m going to focus on the external results I have already witnessed as this show brings the place together, bridges generation (and even century) gaps, and raises awareness to honor the place.
A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Spunk
I play Texanna Branch Collins Alford, the second wife of Holly Springs’ primary recognized “founder.” She was a no-nonsense business-minded woman who liked to think big and had a good deal of spunk. Yeah, I don’t understand me as the casting choice for her either :). She lived during 1860s-1930s.
I researched her online and contacted the administrator of her online family tree. I was thrilled to hear back from the administrator who was none other than Texanna’s granddaughter. She introduced to me to her two sisters online – all of these ladies in their 70s-80s – and a mutual admiration society was founded. They shared stories about their grandmother and I shared stories of my life and pictures of me as their grandmother, like this one:
I hear almost daily from all of the granddaughter sisters and we have made hopeful plans to get together (they are spread to all corners of the country). They have expressed such pride and joy in their grandmother, who history has judged as sometimes having an overbearing self-oriented personality, being portrayed instead as a multi-dimensional person who fiercely loved her family and yet was never ashamed of her ambition and brains. This mutual love and respect between the granddaughter sisters and I culminated on Opening Night this past Monday when a dozen roses from them were awaiting me backstage in the Green Room.
In all the shows I’ve done, I have never really received flowers on Opening Night and I was so touched by their gesture that a make up reapply was needed. After my profusive thanks and sending of this picture, I learned that one of the granddaughter sisters had this photo developed and hung in her home. We have made a connection for a lifetime that I will always treasure.
In Living History
Another aspect of the show is the Living History characters who are children that portray real historical figures. Their jobs are to greet the audience in the lobby and assist with seating while telling snippets of their story. I didn’t know Texanna’s only daughter was cast as one of these characters until she walked up to me at the last dress rehearsal and simply said, “Hi, I’m your daughter.” Adding to my surprise was that her hairstyle mirrored my own even though we had never before met or spoken. We uniquely matched among all the 80+ person cast.
Thanks to my relationship with the granddaughter sisters, I was able to retell stories to “my daughter” that she in turn shared with audience members during seating and intermission. The generational pride was contagious. And of course the granddaughter sisters reveled in their aunt being remembered through this child in such a special way.
On Opening Night, descendants and actual people portrayed on stage came to see the show, as well as other local VIPs. The waves of emotion, from laughter to tears to fear to hope, emanated from the audience all night long and spilled over to after the show. This included an interaction between the town historian and the title character, Patience:
And between actors and the actual people they portray in the show:
Arts Spark Action
And already the message of the show is translating to action for the place. My daughter, Grace, plays Cornelia Holland. Cornelia’s family farm and home were commandeered by Union soldiers during the Civil War while her father was missing in action. Cornelia’s mother, Mary Ann, caring nothing about what side of the war the soldiers fought on, turned her home into a field hospital for both. The Holland family farm represented the best of humanity during a dark time and a destructive war. The home still stands today with no historical preservation or protection. As a result, it is in disrepair and scheduled for demolition due to encroaching development. Although I am not at liberty to give details in the works, I can say it appears that the tide on that trajectory has turned recently. Grace loves visiting her “family” homestead and feels compelled to save it, like the many who now know the nondescript and forgotten structure is in fact a significant place in their community.
So the show runs and then what? Well, it appears that the town is so enamored with the production that it plans on reprising the show every 3-5 years. I am also working with the playwright/director and other members of her team to do “Patience-inspired” activities in the off-production years to raise awareness and funds for the show and related preservation and restoration activities. Because, after all, the Holland homestead is not the only one forgotten in town. Restoration, preservation, relocation, and salvage prior to destruction are all options on the menu for these meaningful structures before one more is lost to time or change.
It may have started as a community theater show, but it has now inspired a movement. And I kinda knew it would, which was why I joined the cast. The story of “Finding Patience” should inspire you to want your town’s story to be told as well. And it can be. Because this placemaking idea, like all of my favorites, is replicable and scalable. Let me know if you want to get started telling yours.
This show is a powerful journey about one of our own local places that will make you love Holly Springs and will make you want your town’s story told as well. That’s why I joined this show portraying a real-life person and I couldn’t be more proud that I did.
100% City Doctor Approved.