By Chuck Whiting
MCAU Editor
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (February 2015) – The multi-media musical stage play "The Ryman Diaries" will premiere in Dickson, Tenn., during a "romantic" run from March 13-14 in the Gaslight Dinner Theatre at The Renaissance Center, 855 Tennessee Highway 46.
Described
as a 19th Century love story, the historical drama depicts the life and times
of Cumberland riverboat Captain Tom Ryman as told through the eyes of his wife,
Bettie Baugh Ryman. The story covers 70 years of the couple's lives through
film media, stage acting, and original musical numbers. It tells of their
unlikely romance, marriage, entrepreneurship, raising seven children on a
riverboat, ultimate success, Christian conversion at a tent meeting, and the
building of the Union Gospel Tabernacle.
Show
times for "The Ryman Diaries" are 7:30 p.m. Friday (March 13) and
2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday (March 14). Admission is $18 for adults, $15
for senior citizens, and $10 for students and children. To buy tickets for
"The Ryman Diaries", call (615) 740-5600 or visit
www.FHU.edu/RCenter.
The
production, which took two years to write, choreograph and stage, stars
award-winning actor/playwright/director Tom Dolan and author/musician/educator
Debbie Mathis Watts. The play is based on Watts' book, "The Ryman
Diaries", with additional dialog from Dolan. The actors penned seven songs
for the production. Film clips feature flashbacks of young Bettie and
historical stills provided by the Metro Archives.
"Both
Bettie and Tom had the hearts of musicians, so it was totally fitting that they
would play and sing," said Watts, who taught at Dickson County High
School for six years. "They were
true romantics who laid the musical foundation for Middle Tennessee."
A
veteran educator, professional pianist-vocalist, and author, Watts' theatrical
roles include Mollie in "Mousetrap" and Agnes in "I Do, I
Do". Dolan has received national acclaim starring as Elwood P. Dowd in
"Harvey", Dr. Albert Schweitzer in "Memoirs from Africa",
and Sam Clemens in "Mark Twain Live".
Watts
said she was inspired to write the book during her tenure as a writer-producer
at TNN: The Nashville Network.
"As
I would be doing research to write country music trivia questions and answers
at TNN: The Nashville Network, I would always run across the fact that it was
Captain Tom Ryman who built the Union Gospel Tabernacle, later renamed the
Ryman Auditorium," added Watts, who was named National Vocabulary
Championship Coach of the Year in 2008. "He had such phenomenal financial
success with his fleet of packet boats on the Cumberland River, and was a big
enough man to accept the message of the gospel of Christianity. Then, being a
woman, I naturally began to wonder about the 'little woman behind the man'."
During
her research at the Metropolitan Library Archives and the Tennessee State
Library Archives, she discovered a "remarkable" love story. Their
chemistry seemed to jump out from 19th Century photos. Great-granddaughter
Charmaine Gossett's book, "Captain Thomas Ryman: His Life and
Legacy", presented a collection of social opposites.
"Right
there is the making of a great love story," Watts said. "The notion
of 'happy ever after' resulted in my first draft."
Like
her book, the play presents a give and take from the captain and Bettie's diaries,
documenting some of the same events from totally different viewpoints. Watts
knew that the captain loved music because he wanted the Union Gospel Tabernacle
to be a concert hall for the world's great musicians, as well as be a house of
worship. She was surprised to learn that Bettie sang and played piano.
Together, Watts and Dolan penned songs with a certain folksiness, heart and
soul, just like the Rymans were in true life.
Dolan,
who directs the live monologues, developed the multi-media accents using a
combination of historic stills of Nashville and the Cumberland River (circa
19th Century) and footage from the Civil War. He also discovered a rare recording
from the radio program "WSM Barn Dance" featuring Uncle Jimmy
Thompson, a famous Grand Ole Opry fiddler. George Thomas, a teenage "genius
of cinematography and technical direction", filmed additional scenes of
the young Captain Tom and his sweetheart, Bettie.
"To
make the play mobile and theatrically timely and efficient, we decided to film
part of the story rather than to have so many players onstage," said
Dolan, who has portrayed Captain Ryman's character in the past for Gaylord
Entertainment, promoting Gossett's book about her great-grandfather. "The
visual and audio interludes set between the scenes serve the purpose of allowing
character custom and age change/progression, while entertaining and educating
the audience regarding the history and passage of time from 1855 to 1925."
The
actors age over 70 years, the Bettie character the most. Bettie portrays
herself from 12ish to 80. Tom ages from the mid 20s to the mid 60s, although he
seems older and more feeble than his chronological age at the end of the play due
to health deterioration.
"I
begin the play as an 80-year-old woman thinking back on her life," Watts
noted. "Then, I transform in two minutes to a 17-year-old school girl who
grows into a married woman. Then, I become a middle-aged woman having a
mid-life crisis. Finally, Bettie is 80 again in the final scene. The challenges
for me are obvious. Switching gears as I change costumes is physically and
emotionally draining. Not having done theatre in 30 years was a mind-bender for
me as well."
Young
Tom is endearing, fumbling and socially inept. As he struggles for the right
words to say, Bettie falls in love with his ineptitude.
"Every
woman knows how irresistible that is," Watts continued.
The
film clips in the play feature performances by Watts' daughter Brittany (as a
young Bettie), her granddaughter Presley (as Bettie's younger sister, Alabama),
her grandson Easton (as a neighbor kid), and Allie Hemmings (as child Bettie).
"The
family resemblance between me, my daughter Brittany, and her children, I think,
adds to the authentic look of 'the family'," Watts said. "Thom
thought Brittany's look of angst in the film was something he couldn't have
directed."
Dolan
said he designed the stage set-up to be simple, mobile and image appropriate to
the everyday life environment of the characters. For Captain Ryman, the
signature set pieces are a captain's wheel and a small out-front stool. For
Bettie's character, he built a simple flat-top circa 1840s piano case, small
table, and rocker. Each character has a folding screen for entrances and
exists, Bettie's much more elaborate and flowery than the captain's.
"I
believe the production of 'The Ryman Diaries' is landmark, so to speak,"
Dolan added. "The style of the play fits both the simplicity of the times
of its subjects, yet relates their story using today's most up-to-date
technology in an efficient and light manner so as to not interrupt the essence
of the period. Secondly, it brings to light in an easily understood manner, an
essential element of Nashville history that has lain dormant, hidden and
ignored for over a century."
Watts
and Dolan believe their production will be an entertainment and educational
tool for tour groups and tourists, as well as history students in area public
schools and colleges. In association with the Cumberland River Compact, Watts,
a common core educational standards coach for the state of Tennessee, is
publishing a resource book for teachers, using the Ryman experience on the Cumberland
River to teach lessons aligned with the common core standards in the areas of
language arts, history and STEM studies. The publication will be available
for the 2015-16 school year. Every Tennessee teacher bringing a school
group to see "The Ryman Diaries" will receive a free resource book.
To
learn more about the play, visit http://wattsd2.wix.com//rymandiaries . (Photos by Chuck Whiting)
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