Local Author’s Work at Strauss

Strauss is especially pleased to be able to present a show with a very special connection to the area: The Cover of Life story is set in Sterlington, though everyone knows it is Bastrop; its author is Ronn Robinson, graduate of Bastrop High School and Northeast Louisiana University.  Ronn was “bitten by the theatre bug” early in his life, and appeared in plays in high school, then at Northeast, and on the Strauss Theatre stage.  It is interesting that Ronn’s play will be presented on a stage on which he appeared several times.

Ronn’s play tells a story suggested by events in the life of his own mother, then adds a number of dramatic turns to tell a poignant story of young wives during WWII finding themselves not at all in control of their destinies.  Three young women, all married to brothers, find themselves living with their mother-in-law when the husbands go off to service.  A reporter from New York is sent to Sterlington to write a story for the cover of Life, hence the title.
Playing the roles of the three women are Anne Brown as Tood, the character the reporter Kate, played by Jae Wold, finds herself the most concerned with as Tood begins to question things.  Aubri Skinner plays Sybil, the most worldly of the sisters-in-law, and of the women in this little town; Natalie Weaver is cast as Weetsie, the most conservative woman who never thinks of disputing anything she is told to believe.
Adding a special touch to the casting of the show is Mitzi Quinn as Aunt Ola, the mother of the three boys. When the play had its first non-professional production in Bastrop in —, Mitzi played the role of Tood, the wife who begins to wonder about the role women are expected to play in 1943   Bastrop.
Rounding out the cast are  Shelly Barnes as Addie Mae, the local newspaper woman whose story on the Cliffert wives leads Henry Luce to send an unwilling female reporter to Louisiana to cover the story.  Sam Coleman plays the role of Tommy, the only one of the Cliffert boys we get to meet.
Ronn said that the characters in the play are the result of the time he spent around the women in his family while he was growing up.  He has written a play that starts off rather like a Southern-fried comedy, but soon becomes serious as all of the women in the play come to grips with the roles that society of the time has designed for them.

The play was performed in Bastrop before its off-Broadway run. It has been performed in regional theatres, and in March of this year was revived for a limited run during a special Women’s History Month program in New York. Critics agreed that it was filled with charm and fun, a moving story about realization of self-worth.

The Cover of Life” is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC

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