JONESBOROUGH REPERTORY THEATRE

Jonesborough Repertory Theatre has instituted a new regional artists’ program that will feature playwrights of the area, and Christopher Dwyer is the first one to bring his work to the JRT stage.

Dwyer, a Science Hill High School graduate who earned his theater degree at nearby Lees-McRae College, will direct “waiting on the moon,” a story set in Northeast Tennessee. The play debuts Thursday and runs through May 29. It revolves around a mother whose daughter has been kidnapped. The focus this time isn’t on the whodunit process of collecting forensic evidence, DNA samples and the like. Instead, it’s about the mother who is forced to sit and wonder, and worry, about her missing daughter.

It’s not your usual JRT fare, but Dwyer said he thinks it is compelling and audiences will enjoy it.

“Basically, I’ve seen a lot of shows where a child or a person goes missing, and it’s all focused on getting the technical evidence,” Dwyer said, “but I believe the families of the people who got kidnapped are also the victims. So this is based on a Johnson City family dealing with the loss of a daughter. It’s very hard on them — so hard that the mother sees visions of her daughter, who speaks to her and she speaks back, and the daughter tells her to wait up for her because they haven’t found the body yet.”

The initial story came to Dwyer within a couple of months, he said, but he kept changing it and improving it, and the process ended up taking a couple of years.

“In a way, it’s a pretty sad story, but there are also some sweeter moments, where people are able to forget about their problems that are funny moments,” he said. “It needed that balance to sort of give the audience a break.”

The play does offer some closure to the case, and Dwyer calls it “more of a redemption story, and I think it’s something that people in the region can relate to.”

The cast consists of local talent playing the parts of local characters. Dwyer said he wants to expose his love of East Tennessee and its family atmosphere to audiences.

Some JRT patrons will already know Dwyer from the work he just finished in the theater’s “Bare-Bones Shakespeare,” along with Brad Smith. Dwyer acted as well as assisted director Smith in the four-person show. He and Smith are childhood friends.

His ‘waiting on the moon’ will involve a cast of 12, including teenagers. “We’re fortunate to have so much talent here,” Dwyer said, adding that he was impressed with the cast. “My view is I do this for a living, but the people in the cast, they have to go to work or pick up kids from school. They’re really busy. It’s been a group effort from everyone.”

Article courtesy of johnsoncitypress.com

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