“Flies at the Well: The Trial of the Killer John Wallace” is now officially in production. The cast has been selected, and director Jennifer Dorrell and Newnan Theatre Company have begun rehearsals.
Performance dates are April 1-3 at the Wadsworth Auditorium in Newnan. Tickets are available at www.vendini.com and at the Newnan Theatre Company website.
This eagerly anticipated musical, by Newnan’s own W. Jeff Bishop, tells the story of John Wallace, a wealthy landowner who ran a farm and moonshine business in Meriwether County during the 1940s. He was apprehended by Coweta County Sheriff Lamar Potts for murdering Wilson Turner, one of his tenant farmers, just across the Coweta County line in Moreland. The incident was made into a book, Murder in Coweta County, during the 1970s, and later into a 1983 TV movie starring Andy Griffith as Wallace and Johnny Cash as Potts.
“Flies at the Well” is based on the same series of events, but it is a new interpretation that includes musical elements, most notably “Sacred Harp” or “Shape Note” music written in the nineteenth century in Newnan.
“I wanted this new work to be indigenous to this place, and to have an emotional resonance that only music can provide,” said Bishop. “Many people are not aware of the profound impact Newnan and Coweta County had on Shape Note singing.”
Now known internationally, the distinct, primitive style of Shape Note singing first took hold and began to flower in places like Newnan and Turin in the mid-to-late 1800s. There are even songs in a hymnal named for these places.
“Songwriters H.S. Reese and J.P. Reese wrote many, if not most of the most popular songs in the ‘Sacred Harp’ hymnal, and they lived here and are buried here,” said Bishop. J.P. Reese served as president of the Chattahoochee Musical Association and the Southern Musical Convention.
The Coweta County Chronicles says J.P. Reese was “devoted to the art of song,” and was the author of such Sacred Harp tunes as “Grantville,” “Sharpsburg,” “Newnan,” and “The Golden Harp,” which is prominently featured at a climactic moment of the new play, “Flies at the Well.”
“The so-called Chattahoochee Singers (performing double duty as the jury) are shaping up to make a joyful noise,” said Caroline Abbey, chairman of the committee that shepherded the play through its development process. “There are heavenly voices and enthusiastic voices, combining with ‘found’ instruments to make your feet tap!”
Bishop said that the trial setting immediately called to mind for him the old Greek chorus.
“I thought – what an opportunity!” he said.
“The culmination of this project is very exciting, having been five years in the making,” said Abbey. “We’re just hoping people realize it’s finally going to happen. With the World Premiere on April Fool’s Day, we are not ‘foolin’!”
The cast includes Tom Grandpre as John Wallace, Joe Arnotti as Wilson Turner, Taj Stephens as Albert Brooks, Lee White as Robert Lee Gates, Dawn Campion as Mayhayley Lancaster, Bert Lyons as Sheriff Lamar Potts, Madeline Sain as Margaret Anne Sibley and Dean Jackson as Henson, Wallace’s defense attorney. The Chattahoochee Circuit Singers include Bailey Olivera, Anne Marie Douglas, Hal Brim, Louisa Grant, Andi Laaker, Maurice Diamond, Katy Durham, Matthew Bailey, Dean Jackson, Ronni Powers, Erin Walton.
Becky Clark and Matthew Bailey are serving as the music directors.
“I am excited all over for this production,” said Bailey. “Let’s go! Wow!”
In June of 2010, Caroline Abbey, then chair of the Newnan Theatre Company Board of Directors, spearheaded a project that for years had been only a dream: re-enacting the 1948 John Wallace murder trial in Coweta County where the original trial took place. With a $20,000 nest egg donated by local businesses, including a generous grant from CharterBank’s Charter Foundation, Abbey issued a Request for Proposal that invited interested parties to submit plans for an original play.
A script based on Margaret Ann Barnes’ famous “Murder in Coweta County” book was not an option due to the legal complexities of obtaining the rights. So prospective authors had to be prepared to write a completely new drama based on trial records, newspaper accounts and other historical records.
On behalf of Newnan Theatre Company, Abbey received thirty five proposals from authors both local and nationwide. The winning proposal was submitted by Jeff Bishop, then a reporter and editor for the Newnan Times Herald, who is also an author and historical scholar.
For more information or to support this endeavor, contact Caroline Abbey at ctabbey@charter.net or Newnan Theatre by calling 770-683-6282.
