CLARKSVILLE, Tenn.- (CLRKSVILLENOW) Clarksville Academy students will present two free public viewings of a new play about the history of Clarksville.
“The Montgomery County Chronicles” will be shown at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 3, 2018, and Saturday, May 5, 2018 at the Roxy Regional Theatre.
“The Montgomery County Chronicles: A Tribute to History, Community, and Leadership” is a new stage play, created by Shana Thornton, local author and publisher. Directed by Ryan Bowie, the play will be performed by Clarksville Academy students. The students have participated in all aspects of the play’s production, from poster and playbill design, to costuming and music choices.
The action of the play opens at night in the apartment of an APSU student who must fulfill an assignment to write a history of Clarksville for the student newspaper. The student wants to write exciting current news instead. That evening, the student falls asleep and dreams the history of Clarksville as told through the actual historical figures as characters and a Paperboy, who acts as the “mouthpiece” of the Leaf Chronicle, and often his lines are actual headlines from old newspapers. The play ends with the student waking to the sounds of the 1999 tornado, and seeing the aftermath of the tornado on the city, so that the play shows the significance of the student’s particular moment in history.
Some of the historical figures featured in the play are Dr. Robert T. Burt, Cave Johnson, Gustavus Henry, Brenda Runyon, Clarence Cameron White, Dorothy Dix, Ben Sory, Austin Peay, and Wilma Rudolph.
Many Clarksville people and organizations have been involved in the development of the play. Thornton and Bowie have been working together on the play for about three years, and some of the professional actors from the Roxy have given their feedback on the play throughout its development. Thornton has worked with Jill Hastings-Johnson from the Montgomery County Archives in order to include historical photographs of Clarksville within the play’s production. Thornton was inspired to create the play after working as a writer on the “Becoming Clarksville” permanent exhibition in the Customs House Museum and Cultural Center. While learning about local history, Thornton was intrigued to learn that so many people had a significant impact on not only local culture and business but also national and even international success.
Thornton hopes to continue “The Montgomery County Chronicles” in the future by featuring more local Clarksville/Montgomery County stories in the same format.