ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 6, 1997 TAG: 9703060050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: BEDFORD
SOURCE: JOANNE POINDEXTER THE ROANOKE TIMES
Bedford's theater troupe takes a look back at American history with three revues written by one of its own. The first installment opens March 14.
She moves about the theater like a whirlwind. So don't give her a director's chair - she won't sit still long enough.
One minute she's on stage, eyeing an actor's movements; then she's in the back of the theater, talking to the costume director. In a jiffy, the director of the Bedford Little Town Players' next production is back on stage clapping her hands and tapping her feet to the music.
The intensity on her face never wavers.
Meet Nancy Johnson, Bedford County thespian, farmer, mother, grandmother, teacher, fox hunter, vestry member, court advocate and playwright.
"I like to think I don't waste time," Johnson said of her frantic pace.
During the past 18 months, she's been gathering information and writing "Celebrating Our Century," a three-part revue of life in the United States that will be staged by Bedford's Little Town Players over the next three years.
Opening night for the first show, which covers the 1930s through the 1950s, is March 14. Two other shows, covering the 1960s through the 1990s, will be presented as part of the theater's 1998 and 1999 seasons.
"It's really awfully ambitious," acknowledged Johnson, who has written other historical plays for the Bedford community theatrical group.
Johnson, a former biology and chemistry teacher, has selected more than 30 cast members for the revue. About half of them are teen-agers, who are learning dances that were popular when their grandparents and parents were young.
"The deal on this show was if you wanted to be in the show, you were in it," Johnson said.
Several in the cast have performed in or worked on other Little Town Players or high school productions. Some have no experience.
Johnson said she's trying to present the play in an educational but entertaining format. She slides in music - a lot of Woody Guthrie tunes - when she really wants her audience to reminisce, because she believes music triggers memories. The play includes scenes about the Depression, the dust bowl, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and other memorable events.
Johnson, 57, has drawn from her own memories and is dedicating the show to her late grandmother and her late father.
Her life was enriched and molded by her father's stories of the people he met as a teen, when he left home in Mason Cove and "rode the rails of America" for seven years as a hobo before settling down and marrying.
"My granny steeped me in the glory and grimness of World War II as she sent four sons off to the service and prayed daily for their safe return. We would all gather around the radio every Saturday night, listening intently for the news of casualties and progress of the battles," Johnson wrote in a foreword to the play.
Johnson spent hours in libraries on research.
"I would find 100 things, only to get one quote," she said.
"I'm not trendy," she said, so she did not use the Internet to gain quick access to some information. "I love the smell of those books and the weight of carrying them that you don't get with computers."
It's not just a book thing, said Karen Hopkins, the show's producer. "Nancy's very thorough, and she wants to make sure of the facts."
Johnson calls herself a control freak because she wants to be involved in every aspect of the show. During the first show she directed, the lighting crew eventually locked her out of the booth because she was constantly giving orders during a performance.
Jeff Krantz, a Little Town Players volunteer who has several roles in "Celebrating Our Century," remembered that incident. But, he said, "Whenever Nancy directs a show I'm in, I can always count on learning a great deal, because she is definitely a master teacher."
Majory Milligan, president of the community theater, said Johnson was selected to write the plays because of the success she had last year with the theater's 20th-anniversary commemoration. "I think we are very lucky to have her in Bedford," Milligan said. "She's extremely professional in her approach to productions."
Johnson, a founding member of the Little Town Players, has acted and worked behind the scenes. Ten years ago, she went to Hollins College and earned a master's degree in theater arts because she's always been interested in theater.
Acting is still her first love, and she misses it. Her first role - as a child - was in a church play with David Huddleston, the Bedford County native who has appeared on television and Broadway and in movies, including "Santa Claus - The Movie," "Rio Lobo" and "Blazing Saddles."
Being a director, she said, is both scary and awesome.
"As director, you are out of control, and everything is in [the actors'] hands once the show starts," she said. "I have developed the ability to utilize the actors, let them be involved in the whole development."
Johnson, who taught biology and chemistry at three Bedford County high schools, quit teaching in 1970 to learn about the farm that has been in her husband's family for generations and to rear her two sons.
She's as much at home feeding animals, cleaning barns and mowing grass as she is directing a show.
She loves horses and has been an avid fox hunter for 30 years. She started swimming classes for people with arthritis and is a counselor with the Court Appointed Special Advocate program for children. She recently was elected to the vestry of St.John's Episcopal Church in Bedford.
"I'm kind of committed to other things, and I get enough theater here to be comfortable," Johnson said.
"Celebrating Our Century" will be presented March 14, 15, 21 and 22 at 8 p.m., and March 23 at 2 p.m. at the Little Town Players' theater at the Elks National Home. Tickets are $6, and discount rates are available for groups of 20 or more. For more information, call (540)586-5881.
LENGTH: Long : 111 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY THE ROANOKE TIMES. 1. Writer-director Nancyby CNBJohnson drew from stories told by her father and grandmother as she
created the historical plays. color. 2. Hopkins (right) teaches
dance moves to `Celebrating Our Century' cast members. color.