Atlanta-born Alzheimer’s play comes into national spotlight
IF YOU GO
“The Thrush & The Woodpecker” (Oct. 31 - Nov. 15) and “BlackBerry Winter” (Nov. 6 - Nov. 22) playing in rotating repertory. 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays (see the calendar at www.actors-express.com for specific performance dates for each play). $21.60 - $33.48. Actor’s Express at the King Plow Arts Center, 887 W. Marietta St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-607-7469, www.actors-express.com
You've heard of having a moment? Steve Yockey's having eight of them.
And it all pretty much kicks off with a supersized one here in Atlanta.
Later this week, Actor's Express in west Midtown will present the second of two world premiere plays by Yockey, a onetime Atlanta playwright-turned-Los Angeles-based writer of works for the stage, TV screens (HBO's "The Brink"), even a popular comic book series. Last Saturday, "The Thrush & The Woodpecker" opened at the innovative theater located in the King Plow Arts Center; it will run in rotating repertory for nearly a month with "Blackberry Winter," which opens there this Friday as a co-production with Atlanta's Out of Hand Theater.
It was several years ago when Out of Hand commissioned Yockey to write "Blackberry Winter," a deeply moving, sneakily funny story about a woman caring for her Alzheimer's-diagnosed mother. The play, which Out of Hand helped Yockey shape along with acclaimed Atlanta actress Carolyn Cook, Alzheimer's researchers at Emory University and other experts, underwent a series of workshop performances here in the spring of 2014. Even before Yockey fine-tuned it to its final form, it had been chosen by the National New Play Network for a series of "rolling premieres" across the country during the 2015-16 season.
The eight theaters on tap from Oregon to Massachusetts is an NNPN record. Adding to the “wow” factor, “The Thrush & The Woodpecker” was recently added to the NPNN rolling premiere lineup, with Actor’s Express becoming the first theater to present both plays together in repertory.
Still, don’t blame Yockey if one “moment” stands out above all the rest where he’s concerned.
“That’s incredible to all of us, I think,” Yockey wrote in an email about the number of theaters producing “Blackberry Winter” in the next year. “But Out of Hand’s upcoming production at Actor’s Express … will be particularly special because the same cast who developed the play — Carolyn Cook, Maia Knispel and Joe Sykes — will be in the production.
“It’s basically the culmination of two years of work,” Yockey, who remains an associate artist at Out of Hand, concluded. “And we can’t wait to share it with folks.”
Indeed, Cook was determined to again play the lead role of Vivienne whenever “Blackberry Winter” finally made the leap from workshop to world premiere here.
“I said, ‘As soon as you know it’s going to happen, as soon as you know the dates, tell me,’ ” Cook recalled last week.
The Suzi Bass Award-winning actress (she won Atlanta's version of a Tony in 2013 for "Time Stands Still" at Horizon Theatre) doesn't just have a strong professional connection to "Blackberry Winter." She also knows personally the stresses and rewards experienced by Vivienne, who is onstage almost continuously during the 90-minute play. Cook's mother, June Sparks, was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, a type of dementia, about seven years ago; along with her two siblings, Cook is a loving caregiver to her mother. All that made her Out of Hand co-artistic director Adam Fristoe's No. 1 choice for the important role of creating "Blackberry Winter" and Vivienne from Day One.
"She's said to me many times that she just feels compelled to make art right now, she needs to make art," Fristoe told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last year for a Personal Journey about Cook and her mother (read it at memories.ajc.com).
“It means something different to her now.”
Vivienne isn’t her story, per se, Cook has always stressed. If anything, she says now, “Blackberry Winter” is a story with meaning for everyone who has or may ever find themselves caring for someone they love.
“I’m thrilled that the play has a life even beyond the production I’m in,” she said. “I’m thrilled so many people are getting access to this important story.”
