From Gettysburg to Robert E. Lee, most historical narratives about the American Civil War are about the big battles and the big names of the conflict. But the war touched lives well beyond the battlefields, which is what playwright Sharon Talbot's two-person show "A Field of Glory" is about. The play opens Wednesday in Raleigh.
"The history books are never about the plain folks," Talbot said. "There were plantation owners who were rich, and then they weren't. They couldn't sell their cotton anymore and they were trying to live off the land, and starving. So they were in the trenches, too."
In addition to writing "A Field of Glory," Talbot (a New York-based actress) also stars in the play, which is a true family affair. It's directed by Talbot's sister, Tony nominee Lynne Taylor-Corbett; and it's based on real-life family history that goes back to the Civil War era in North Carolina.
The characters are based on two of Talbot's relatives from Granville County, Rosalia Taylor and her son John (played by Jesse Janowsky), who went off to war to fight for the Confederacy. While growing up, Talbot heard plenty of stories about them from her great-grandmother, who was Rosalia's daughter-in-law.
Talbot did some research for "A Field of Glory" and turned up a handful of historical artifacts, including copies of John Taylor's weekly paystubs as a soldier ("He was making pennies, not much," she said). John wrote weekly letters to his mother from the field, but Talbot could never find any of them. She did, however, come into possession of one priceless document - a four-page letter that Rosalia had written to another relative.
"It had so much information about Rosalia's feelings, what she was doing, where John was and everything else that I was able to build the entire play around that letter," Talbot said. "Even though that's all I had to start with, I was able to fictionalize a lot of stuff based on research. I created a story around them about things that could have happened by using things that did happen."
Set in Rosalia's garden, the play takes the form of a long conversation between mother and son after he appears unannounced on a surprise last-minute leave. Talbot calls the garden setting "the play's third character."
"It's kind of a mystical place where wonderful and terrible things happen, and where Rosalia goes to work and think," Talbot said. "John finds her there, and they talk all day. They fight, dance around; he tells her war stories, she tells him she wants him to marry a girl he doesn't want to, he tells her different ideas on how the plantation should be run."
The first performance of "A Field of Glory" was a staged reading in New York in 2009, followed by a New York production last year. This Raleigh production, as part of the Hot Summer Nights at the Kennedy series, will be the second time it's been staged.
"One thing actors in New York do is create our own work rather than wait around," Talbot said. "During this rehearsal period, we've learned how to streamline it and really make it crackle. My hope is to give it legs here, then eventually get up to off-Broadway in New York."
