We better find our feet before it's too late

If there is a thin line between genius and insane,

is there a similar thin line between tragedy and comedy?

I think we've been learning that over the course of the last few rehearsals.

This is a show, that at first bite, tastes like a silly southern surregional comedy.

We have:

1. Southern Accents.

2. A bunch of running around and song playing.

3. Spirituality, flying opossums, floods, hills.

4. Idioms and slang.

Comedy, right?

Not quite.

We've been talking how shows like this have all the trappings to be stuck within the comedic elements. We live in the south, we know about these locales, places, and people and because it acts as a mirror of sorts we see the parts that make us smile because we think, even if for a moment "Hey, that makes me think of home."

But we're discovering it's more than that.

To lean towards the notion that this is a full blown musical comedy would mean to deny the truth in the text by Liz Doss and the emotion in the music by Mark Stewart.

There is true heart here.

What makes the show work is the reality that these characters are living in.

Their parents are gone.

They're now orphans.

Their lost, and yet forced to find a far away land that, to most of them, may not exist.

Why?

To survive.

Can't you hear the belly laughing, side splitting humor?

Its their, but not.

The humor, rather than being the driving force, is used like a knife to cut through the tension.

Its quite breathtaking.

But you can make up your own mind.