Georgia Magazine - March 2024 - 18

Cast members perform the fi nale
song of " Swamp Gravy. "
We all have a story to tell
Among the topics in " Swamp Gravy " scripts have been
love and marriage, family relationships and downtown life.
" It may be only a sliver of a story that gets used or a
composite, " Ward says. " But the feeling of community
engagement is so strong. After every production, people
will come up to the stage and say something like, 'You used
my mama's cousin's brother-in-law's story!' "
" Swamp Gravy " is not all folksy. With its integrated cast,
the play has tackled issues such as race relations and
domestic violence.
" We have done cornpone with great joy, " says playwright
Gerard Stropnicky, who has written five of the plays. " But it's
not all cornpone. It's a mix of serious drama with comedy
and music and dancing. If it was all drama, it probably
wouldn't attract such a crowd, but if it were all sweetness and
light, it wouldn't hang together.
" The feeling is: We are going through these things and
working them out together, as a community. The play is a
way for the community to reflect and talk to itself and grow.
The idea is to tell it all, and the truth will set you free. "
For a homespun, small-town undertaking, " Swamp
Gravy " has made the big time. In 1996 it was chosen as a
Cultural Olympiad event and performed at Centennial
Olympic Park during the Summer Games in Atlanta, and
that same year the cast performed at the Kennedy Center in
Washington, D.C. It also has served as a model for
" community story plays " nationwide, including plays in
New Orleans and Bethlehem, Penn.
" It's the mother ship that has planted seeds all over the
place, " Stropnicky says, noting that community plays such
18 Georgia Magazine March 2024
as " Headwaters " in Sautee and " Crooked Rivers " in Camden
County drew inspiration from " Swamp Gravy. "
Meanwhile, Colquitt is thriving.
" When I first went there [from Bloomburg, Penn., in
1999] to write, the stores were all boarded up, " Stropnicky
says. " Now the census shows the population has grown and
the per-capita income has increased, so ['Swamp Gravy'] has
succeeded in its economic goal. "
Krista Ticktin, executive director of the Colquitt/Miller
Arts Council, says: " The Georgia Department of Tourism
shows that for every person purchasing a ticket, the return on
the ticket price to the community is $112. The study showed
[that] guests purchase food, gas and souvenirs at Cotton Hall
and visit our nine retail stores. On any Saturday when Cotton
Hall is performing, we bring 640 visitors to our small town. "
" We're not just a brochure for the Chamber of
Commerce. We're a poster child for economic revitalization
through the arts, " Jinks says. " 'Swamp Gravy' is a living,
breathing organism that feeds the entire region. "
Candice Dyer is a freelance writer based in Cleveland.
Her work regularly appears in local and national magazines.
When you go
" Swamp Gravy: Iron and Lace " has a true-crime element to
it and is about strong women and motherhood. It will be
performed March 1-2, 8-9, 15-16 and 22-23 at Cotton Hall,
166 Main St., Colquitt. Shows are Fridays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays
at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. " Swamp Gravy: Iron and Lace " also will be
presented in October. For more information and tickets, call
(229) 758-5450 or visit swampgravy.com.
HANNAH HARRISON
http://www.swampgravy.com
Georgia Magazine - March 2024

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