Billy's monologue from the play The Wakeville Stories, is published in The Best Men's Stage Monologues 2016, published by Smith and Krause; Lawrence Harrison, editor
Above Photo: Meg Di Maggio (Tweedy) and Michael Kelly (Bill) in the Matty Mae production of The Wakeville Stories. Directed by Kristin Dwyer. Produced at Davis Square Theatre, Somerville, Massachusetts, June 19 and 26, 2015 and at the Veterans' Memorial Cemetery, June 20 and 27, 2015.
Dani Berkowitz Merjane Kevin C. Groppe Cyrus Kathleen C. Lewis Six Meg Di Maggio Tweedy/ Co-producer Michael Kelly Bill Kristin Dwyer Director/Co-producer Stage Manager Andrew Cataluna Costume Designer EmilyTaradash Scenic Designer/Props Geoff Ehrendreich Assistant Scenic Designer Joshua Kigner Sound Designer Patrick Kiernan Communications Keith MacKenzie 
Nicole M. Carroll as Six and Alex Johnson as Bill in the SUNY New Paltz production
of The Wakeville Stories. To see the Synopsis and Play's Production History, scroll down |
The Wakeville Stories by Laurence Carr
Playwright Carr has written a compassionate script. It introduces us to characters that we come to care about in 90 minutes. The landscaping of the Somerville Veterans’ Memorial Cemetery with its high walls and leafy trees made a charming stage for The Wakefield Stories. The gardens of the cemetery were a vibrant contrast to the occasionally morbid script. The hum of bees accompanied actors’ dialogue on the effects of war on communities. The Matty Mae Theater Project performed this new work by Laurence Carr there and also in the Davis Square Theatre. Wakeville Stories is a simple, ensemble driven piece of theatre that puts focus on interpersonal relationships and communication over elements of stagecraft. The beauty of this outdoor production lay in its capacity to entertain without the benefit of lighting or set dressing. Its simplicity did not distract the audience from its messages. The New England Theatre Geek Review by Kitty Drexel (Somerville, MA) Thanks for sending The Wakeville Cycle, (the earlier title, playwright note) which I just read and was enthralled by. It’s filled with interesting, complex and intense relationships that capture characters at demanding points in their lives. The physical action is compelling and symbolic and the dialogue has a lyrical quality that emerges from the sincerity and depth of the characters’ feelings. —Michael Bigelow Dixon, Literary ManagerActors Theatre of Louisville: New Play Program, August 17, 1989 |
Carr’s vignettes are closely |
The Wakeville Stories
a two-act play in four scenes
by Laurence Carr
by Laurence Carr
The Wakeville Stories creates three strong roles for women in their 20s and one male is his 20s. A fifth male character is in his 40s or 50s. This powerful story is a timely vehicle for college theatre, Equity and non-Equity theatres and Community and Stock productions.
Short Synopsis:
This drama-comedy of interwoven plots is set in Wakeville, Ohio, in August, 1945. World War II has ended and small town America has to adjust to peace after four hard years of war. The play explores five small town people, and how their conflicted love-lives lead them to discover how love, sex and memory intertwine with both positive and negative outcomes.
Characters:
Cyrus, mid-40s, a weather-beaten keeper of the Wakeville Cemetery. He is a WWI veteran and holds memories of Matty Mae Johnson, the town beauty and romantic.
Merjane, a child-woman somewhere between 13 and 18. Cyrus’s niece, a visionary. She has the gift of channeling the dead.
Six (Violet), mid-20s, a romantic, verging on a young Blanche DuBois. Sensual and flirty and doesn’t hide her sexuality. Best friends with Tweedy.
Tweedy, mid-20s. A farm girl with both feet on the ground and an edge, but with a soft side she hesitates to show. Best friends with Six.
Bill, early 20s. Recently been discharged from the Army where he served in the war in Europe. He’s battle-scarred emotionally.
Full Synopsis:
Scene 1: Madagascar
Cyrus, the keeper of the Wakeville Community Cemetery, grooms the graves up on The Hill. He takes special care with Matty Mae’s grave, the town’s shady lady, with whom he shares past secrets. He’s joined by his niece, Merjane, who’s spending the summer with him. She is a tomboy child-woman and has the gift as a seer, able to channel the dead taking on their personalities. Matty Mae’s story is told and how she died by driving her car into the Ohio River after an affair ended. Merjane begins to channel Matty, but Cyrus stops her and sends her away.
Scene Two: Six
A young woman, Violet, nicknamed Six, enters the cemetery to tend the grave of her grandmother, “Gamma.” Soon two others will arrive: Tweedy, Six’s best friend, and Bill, a battle-scarred soldier who’s just returned from the war in Europe. In the presence of Gamma and the others, Six says she will accept Bill’s proposal of marriage, the thing that’s been her obsession for the last three years. Merjane enters after eavesdropping about Six’s plan and she and Six become fast friends. Tweedy, who’s moved back to her family’s farm in Ohio enters, and she and Six share girl talk, but Six won’t tell of her marriage plans until Bill arrives. Bill soon enters, and Tweedy breaks her big news: She and Bill will be married. Both Six and Merjane are stunned. Tweedy and Merjane leave for ice cream, leaving Bill and Six to work through their “unfinished business.” Six literally throws herself at Bill, trying to change Tweedy and Bill’s plans. Bill tells why he can’t be with Six and will wed Tweedy. He exits, leaving Six heartbroken and delusional. Merjane enters and tries to comfort Six.
Scene Three: the Furlough
In a field off a deserted two-lane road, Bill runs on, shattered by a war flashback. He tries to bury himself. Tweedy enters with a picnic basket, and tries to bring Bill back to reality. Bill, in his nightmare, nearly kills Tweedy with a sharpened stick he thinks is his gun. Again, Tweedy slowly talks him back. The scene, both comic and dramatic, explores how two people fight to save a relationship that war has nearly severed.
Scene Four: Homefront
In the parlor of the Six’s home, she and Merjane talk of Matty Mae and the romantic life she lead. Six gives Merjane Matty’s diary and shawl. Six is planning to leave town and take Merjane with her, under the pretense of helping Merjane find her mother, a saloon singer. In Six’s now distorted reality, she plans to kidnap Merjane and the two of them will live as women who search for love in all the wrong places. Cyrus enters and demands Merjane back. Merjane starts to channel Matty and nearly draws Cyrus into her web, but he shakes Merjane free of both Matty and Six’s strangle hold. He sends Six away and Cyrus and Merjane come to realize that they need each other.
The Play’s History:
The four scenes (an earlier version called The Wakeville Cycle) that make up The Wakeville Stories have been produced as separate one-acts and as a full-length play in different versions.
The Wakeville Stories was produced at the Davis Square Theatre, Somerville, Massachusetts, June 19 and 26, 2015 and at the Veterans' Memorial Cemetery, Somerville, Massachusetts, June 20 and 27, 2015. Kristin Dwyer, director.
The Wakeville Stories was produced as a staged reading by The Exchange Theatre: Saratoga’s Reader’s Theatre, April 1, 2012 at Saratoga City Tavern. David Braucher, director.
The Wakeville Stories was produced by the Theatre Department of SUNY New Paltz, NY as a staged reading/workshop in Parker Theatre, October 23-24, 2010 (four performances). Stephen Kitsakos, director
The Wakeville Stories (four scenes) was produced as a concert reading in The Black Box at SUNY New Paltz, New Paltz, NY in May 2009. Directed by the author.
Six (an earlier version) was produced in an evening of one-acts at The Mid-American Playwrights’ Theatre, Springfield, Illinois, 1994; James Gasparin, director.
The Wakeville Stories (scenes 1, 2 and 3) was produced as a staged reading as part of the Lincoln Center Library’s SSDC New Plays Series, New York City, 1993; Charlie Hensley, director.
Over, Over There (an early version of Madagascar) was produced as part of The West Coast Ensemble’s 5th Annual Celebration of One-Acts, Los Angeles, California, 1989; John Weidner, director.
Over, Over There and Six (early versions) were produced as a staged reading as part of The American Writers’ Program at The Westbeth Theatre Center, New York City, 1985; Gavin Cameron-Webb, director.
Short Synopsis:
This drama-comedy of interwoven plots is set in Wakeville, Ohio, in August, 1945. World War II has ended and small town America has to adjust to peace after four hard years of war. The play explores five small town people, and how their conflicted love-lives lead them to discover how love, sex and memory intertwine with both positive and negative outcomes.
Characters:
Cyrus, mid-40s, a weather-beaten keeper of the Wakeville Cemetery. He is a WWI veteran and holds memories of Matty Mae Johnson, the town beauty and romantic.
Merjane, a child-woman somewhere between 13 and 18. Cyrus’s niece, a visionary. She has the gift of channeling the dead.
Six (Violet), mid-20s, a romantic, verging on a young Blanche DuBois. Sensual and flirty and doesn’t hide her sexuality. Best friends with Tweedy.
Tweedy, mid-20s. A farm girl with both feet on the ground and an edge, but with a soft side she hesitates to show. Best friends with Six.
Bill, early 20s. Recently been discharged from the Army where he served in the war in Europe. He’s battle-scarred emotionally.
Full Synopsis:
Scene 1: Madagascar
Cyrus, the keeper of the Wakeville Community Cemetery, grooms the graves up on The Hill. He takes special care with Matty Mae’s grave, the town’s shady lady, with whom he shares past secrets. He’s joined by his niece, Merjane, who’s spending the summer with him. She is a tomboy child-woman and has the gift as a seer, able to channel the dead taking on their personalities. Matty Mae’s story is told and how she died by driving her car into the Ohio River after an affair ended. Merjane begins to channel Matty, but Cyrus stops her and sends her away.
Scene Two: Six
A young woman, Violet, nicknamed Six, enters the cemetery to tend the grave of her grandmother, “Gamma.” Soon two others will arrive: Tweedy, Six’s best friend, and Bill, a battle-scarred soldier who’s just returned from the war in Europe. In the presence of Gamma and the others, Six says she will accept Bill’s proposal of marriage, the thing that’s been her obsession for the last three years. Merjane enters after eavesdropping about Six’s plan and she and Six become fast friends. Tweedy, who’s moved back to her family’s farm in Ohio enters, and she and Six share girl talk, but Six won’t tell of her marriage plans until Bill arrives. Bill soon enters, and Tweedy breaks her big news: She and Bill will be married. Both Six and Merjane are stunned. Tweedy and Merjane leave for ice cream, leaving Bill and Six to work through their “unfinished business.” Six literally throws herself at Bill, trying to change Tweedy and Bill’s plans. Bill tells why he can’t be with Six and will wed Tweedy. He exits, leaving Six heartbroken and delusional. Merjane enters and tries to comfort Six.
Scene Three: the Furlough
In a field off a deserted two-lane road, Bill runs on, shattered by a war flashback. He tries to bury himself. Tweedy enters with a picnic basket, and tries to bring Bill back to reality. Bill, in his nightmare, nearly kills Tweedy with a sharpened stick he thinks is his gun. Again, Tweedy slowly talks him back. The scene, both comic and dramatic, explores how two people fight to save a relationship that war has nearly severed.
Scene Four: Homefront
In the parlor of the Six’s home, she and Merjane talk of Matty Mae and the romantic life she lead. Six gives Merjane Matty’s diary and shawl. Six is planning to leave town and take Merjane with her, under the pretense of helping Merjane find her mother, a saloon singer. In Six’s now distorted reality, she plans to kidnap Merjane and the two of them will live as women who search for love in all the wrong places. Cyrus enters and demands Merjane back. Merjane starts to channel Matty and nearly draws Cyrus into her web, but he shakes Merjane free of both Matty and Six’s strangle hold. He sends Six away and Cyrus and Merjane come to realize that they need each other.
The Play’s History:
The four scenes (an earlier version called The Wakeville Cycle) that make up The Wakeville Stories have been produced as separate one-acts and as a full-length play in different versions.
The Wakeville Stories was produced at the Davis Square Theatre, Somerville, Massachusetts, June 19 and 26, 2015 and at the Veterans' Memorial Cemetery, Somerville, Massachusetts, June 20 and 27, 2015. Kristin Dwyer, director.
The Wakeville Stories was produced as a staged reading by The Exchange Theatre: Saratoga’s Reader’s Theatre, April 1, 2012 at Saratoga City Tavern. David Braucher, director.
The Wakeville Stories was produced by the Theatre Department of SUNY New Paltz, NY as a staged reading/workshop in Parker Theatre, October 23-24, 2010 (four performances). Stephen Kitsakos, director
The Wakeville Stories (four scenes) was produced as a concert reading in The Black Box at SUNY New Paltz, New Paltz, NY in May 2009. Directed by the author.
Six (an earlier version) was produced in an evening of one-acts at The Mid-American Playwrights’ Theatre, Springfield, Illinois, 1994; James Gasparin, director.
The Wakeville Stories (scenes 1, 2 and 3) was produced as a staged reading as part of the Lincoln Center Library’s SSDC New Plays Series, New York City, 1993; Charlie Hensley, director.
Over, Over There (an early version of Madagascar) was produced as part of The West Coast Ensemble’s 5th Annual Celebration of One-Acts, Los Angeles, California, 1989; John Weidner, director.
Over, Over There and Six (early versions) were produced as a staged reading as part of The American Writers’ Program at The Westbeth Theatre Center, New York City, 1985; Gavin Cameron-Webb, director.