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| Homestead Magazine Summer 2008: Swamp Gravy |
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By Charles Johnson
A play saves the day for this small Georgia community
Hertiage counts. Cultural fads come and go like dandelion seeds in an April breeze, but
captivating stories of place and people remain, firmly rooted.
Those stories revitalized tiny
Colquitt, Ga., located in the southwestern corner
of the state, surrounded by fields of peanuts,
cotton, corn, and soybeans. Against all
the odds, in classic 'build it and they’ll come'
fashion, Colquitt's folks decided to preserve
local stories in a play staged as professional
as possible. They named it Swamp Gravy.
A stew-like old-time country dish, swamp
gravy is made from 'fish drippings' left over
from frying fish, stocked with potatoes, onions
and whatever else might be lying around
the kitchen. It was an apt description for what they had on their hands. The play was
a little bit of this and a little of that, some
drama, some singing, some joke-telling, some
gut-wrenching heart-felt emotion
Directed by Richard Greer, a New Yorker
in on it from the start, Swamp Gravy opened
in the Miller County Elementary School
auditorium in fall, 1992. Crowds were wildly
enthusiastic and performances sold out.
Quick Success. A couple of years later, they fixed up a dilapidated, snake-infested cotton warehouse near the town square, called it Cotton Hall, and moved the production
there. Swamp Gravy was featured at the 1996
Olympics, and, that November, they performed
at The Kennedy Center in Washington,
D.C. That was just the start.
Since then, along with regular local performances, they’ve toured the region, helped
develop other towns’ dramas, sponsored storytelling festivals, collected numerous arts
awards, and re-energized Colquitt.
"It was a real snowball effect. It just kept
rolling and we couldn’t get off," says Jennifer
Trawick, executive director of the Colquitt/
Miller Arts Council, which produces the
plays. "We wanted to do something to celebrate
our Southern heritage. But all these
people working together stimulated the local
economy. We crossed the boundaries of racial
and social agendas. It brought us together."
To keep interest high, they produce new
plays under the Swamp Gravy banner. The
feature this year is, "Swamp Gravy: Reunion,"
about a family reunion, built around the idea
that the longest road is the one leading home.
Empowering. On show days, the town square fills with people in the shops. They also roam the area, looking at Colquitt’s unique murals painted as the "Millennium Mural
Project," from 2000 to 2006. Many murals
feature events from local history.
"Swamp Gravy gives us a creative outlet.
We write it. We write the songs, too. These are
not actors on the stage. We’re telling stories
from the heart. We, the people, tell our stories
to other people. It empowers us. I love every
minute of it," says Charlotte Phillips, who
acts, writes, and does scenery for the play.
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