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"Talking Pictures "
A drama by Horton Foote Performance rights arranged with Dramatisits Play Service, Inc.
Production Dates: February 18, 19 & 25, 26 at 8 pm
Place: Judd Theatre
Directors: Dr. Darrel Alexander
1929, Harrison, Texas. Myra Tolliver makes her living playing the live music for silent pictures. She makes barely enough to survive, caring for herself and her teenage son, Pete. As borders in the home of the Jacksons, Mrya supplements her rent by giving piano lessons to the Jackson's two daughters. Mr.Jackson is a railroad man who, during the course of the play, is bumped from his engineer's position stationed in Harrison, to one stationed elsewhere, and bumped back again. They'll stay in Harrison, meaning Myra and Pete can stay; that is if Myra can continueto find work since talkies are about to take over the town picture show and Myra won't be needed anymore. Myra knows her means of making a living is at an end, and that her prospects are dim, but she is willing to do almost anything to keep her and Pete going.
While trying hard to provide for her son, his father, Gerard, keeps trying to lure Peteaway form Myra to live with him. Changing girlfriends, jobs and being a showoff, Gerard doesn't know anyting about bringing up their son, but Myra doesn't realize how much Pete believes his father's promises of a better life. Through all this, Myra is courted by Willis, a bricklayer abandoned by his wife five years earlier. Smitten with Myra, everyone knows Willis will soon ask her to marry him. Though taken with Willis, Myra may not be in love with him. Pete announces he will go to live with his father, nearly breaking Myra's heart. She won't stop him though, for fear he will hate her. Yet, when Gerard casually announces he is married again and he is postponing Pete's move, Pete's eyes are opened.
Myra, glad Pete is staying with her, faces a hard life since the talkies have come to Harrison. Around them, the Jackson girls learn music from Myra and listen to the stories of a young preacher boy their own age who will travel back to his native Mexico, leaving the girls with dreams of running away to the excotic land. Willis' ex-wife shows up too, running away from an abusive boyfriend, hoping Willis will take her back to sheild her. Through it all, Myra and Willis quietly carve out a place for themselves and what will be a new era.
"Foote sensitively portrays the small moment in ordinary lives. Schoolgirl crushes, suicidal rage, and the ache of loneliness are given full resonance by this dramatist with Tennessee Williams's sympathetic soul William Inge's camera like eye for the everyday." - Backstage
Faculty Facts
Mickey Cowan, Professor of Accounting, is a Certified Public Accountant, interested in ethics and accounting theory. Cowan works at OC "because of Elaine Kelly and Phil Lewis. I taught 30 years in state schools, I truly enjoy being in the classroom. The students and my business school colleagues being believers in Christ keep me here."
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