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The Kentucky Cycle - The Essays.

Tom Churchill
“During a period starting in the early 'seventies, continuing into the 'eighties, I wrote three researched novels, two of which were published and a third, Who Killed Laura Law, was accepted by a London publisher**, who subsequently failed before the novel appeared. That novel, besides Centralia Dead March (Northwestern University Press) and Triumph over Marcos (Open Hand, Greensboro, N.C.) dramatize the lives of Pacific Northwest labor leaders who died (were murdered) advancing the cause of their unions -- pushing for better pay, decent living conditions, and more humane hours. The money I got for this work was slim, but the human reward is beyond reckoning: the friendships my wife, Sophie, and I still embrace for the work done on Triumph over Marcos, alone, is enough to make the total effort seem meager by comparison. Before researching the ways in which Labor changed the nation's attitude toward the value of unions, changed the landscape of  what a worker in this country might hope for (dream of), I lived that life as a child and adolescent, growing up in a household supported by both my mom's and my dad's union affiliations. My dad's teamster job as a milk driver often had him home off his route at the same time I got back from school; his job and Mom's assured us that we lived in a paid-for, two story, Seattle home on a crime-free street, with a sweeping view of the city.

Our medical bills were taken care of.  We ate like human beings, we didn't sweat lay-offs, and --because I grew up in the reasonable 'fifties -- I could count on going to University without amassing a mountain of debt.

Playing Joshua Rowen in the last two mini-plays of The Kentucky Cycle is as natural to me as, say, playing a writer, maybe more so: that Joshua fails fatally to deliver the perfect contract as a union organizer does little to widen the gap between what my dad knew as a relatively happy Teamster; rather, it makes clear that when one fails to follow through -- in any job -- on the human level… when one fails to insist that the material food one brings to the table is untainted by shabby "deals," then we all fall down.  His "tragedy" quickly becomes ours, and makes clear that what lies near the surface of any so-called success is the virtual abyss of what this country faces at this moment, this tiny instant of time, when we turn our lives over to those who care only for greed, for the "lives" of corporations.  When we listen seriously to those whose walnut-brains rattle inside cavernous skulls, we victimize our souls.

Incidentally, I love this play, and working with Michael Barker makes it obvious that he's not only one of the best directors in this locale, he's the strongest leader: you don't get a play such as this onto the stage without leadership -- he turns us all into organizers. Oofta-may, are we ever.” -- Tom Churchill

**Pluto Press, who'd published plays by Caryl Churchill, Nobel Prize winner, Dario Fo, and Noam Chomsky, and who'd offered me a 1,000-pound advance. With worldwide distribution, they had been supported in part by funds from the London City Council, until the Iron Maiden (Thatcher) cut that pipeline as too threatening to the corporate heads who kept her afloat.

Gail Fleming
I grew up in a community nestled between the sea and what I thought at the time were endless hills, where my best friend and I ran wild -­ out all day exploring, making forts, riding the horses people left up there. I came back once years later to find those hills covered with cookie cutter houses. I didn¹t want to look and I have never been back. We have to look.

We have done to the land what Michael Rowen did to Morning Star ­- we have stolen, raped, disabled and exploited her. Controlled by our ignorance, arrogance and fear, we have done our best to destroy what we see as "other"-- in the end a very effective form of self-destruction. We are all the perpetrators and the victims; we are suffering the consequences of our disregard for what feeds us.

I grieve with Mary Anne Rowen for the land -- the central character in The Kentucky Cycle. The playwright focuses attention on our treatment of her and of each other, painful as it may be to look. If we continue to live in denial there can be no redemption (for the humans) or regeneration (for the land), and I would argue that this is, in the end, a deeply hopeful work.

There is just a long long winter before the spring.

I am thankful to Robert Schenkkan for his vision, and to Michael Barker for honoring that vision and using his skill, warmth and tenacity to bring it to life. Thank you for making us look.

If you¹re not familiar with Wendell Berry -­ check him out. He is a radical Kentucky farmer whose essays, fiction and poetry speak eloquently to the themes in The Kentucky Cycle ­- love of and the consequences of disrespect for the land. -- Gail Fleming

Paul Mathews
“I have to admit that I found history classes boring in high school, but I think I would have paid more attention if my teachers had told me what really went on in our 'glorious past'. In those history classes, I was taught that our history consists of a 'timeline' of events like wars and elections, and, that the Yanks were generally the good guys. Ours was a class-less society in a world otherwise full of oligarchies and warring tribes. Oh, yes, we had our problems, but we solved them and moved on.

Come to find out, things were not so simple, and 'progress' was not so steady. In recent decades, we've had a steady stream of books and movies that bring us much closer to the truths of our heritage. We've learned, for example, that our governmental institutions at all levels had long periods of cronyism and other forms of corruption, that each successive wave of immigrants had to fight for their share of 'the land of opportunity', and that our leaders have often made major decisions based more on economic and personal considerations than on what is best for the nation (or humanity, for that matter). We've learned that all branches of our national government have colluded with powerful elites for personal advantage and continue to do so. There is much dark matter in our history, but we can also find many stories of personal altruism and triumph of good over evil. The truth is ever so much more interesting than the sanitized 'history' lessons of the classroom.

Where then, does a prodigious work like The Kentucky Cycle fit into this picture of learning about our heritage? Unlike that dry classroom recounting of events, this play takes our historical heritage to a personal level. In the play, we find individuals struggling, often violently, to establish themselves and their families in the North American frontier. Families rise and fall. The good die young and cheaters prosper. Money talks and money corrupts. Each 'eye for an eye' cycle keeps going until there is only one left standing. All the while, verses from the Bible serve to justify, consecrate, and curse as the need arises. These individuals represent larger groups in our society of course, but the experience in the theater is very personal.

For the actors, the experience of being in the play is also quite personal. One of my characters is obsessed with revenge, plotted out over decades. His triumph is complete, but his insistence on including the next generation among his victims results in an even more terrible fate for his own family 40 years later. I find acting these roles both exhausting and enlightening, and I looking forward to bringing these 'personal histories' to the WICA audience.” -- Paul Mathews

Erick Westphal
Abe Steinman, a union organizer. Abe Steinman, a Jew. Abe Steinman, a believer in change. What has he lost to see so much?

Walking into Hell bringing humanity. Seeing the spirit in others that they have long forsaken. A man who understands the essence of family – some of which may not be of his blood but will live in every way possible to honor your family - that becomes his.  The light he brings that sparks the life in others.

What has he lost to see so much? Abe Steinman, a believer in change. Abe Steinman, a Jew. Abe Steinman, a union organizer.

What do we do today that makes such a difference in the lives of others? The internal nudge we have to say ‘hi’. Do we pass it up or take that chance, not knowing the outcome is a turn of events that changes our world.

What is our legacy? -- Erick Westphal






special thanks
Ron Atlee; Gay Bitts; Patrick Bitts; Todd Bitts; The Everett Daily Herald; FightDesigner.com; Fine Balance Imaging Studios; Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island and Maureen MacDonald; David Gignac; Caitlin Goldbaum; The Inn at Langley, Paul and Pam Schell; Langley United Methodist Church; Robert Schekkan; Sound Publishing; Claudia Walker; Whidbey Daily; Whidbey Institute; Denis Zimmerman