The Roads to Home

Synopsis: In the first play, A Nightingale, Mabel and Vonnie, two Houston neighbors and best friends, both refugees from small Texas towns, are forbearing and patient about the protracted and uninvited visits of Annie Long, a girlhood acquaintance of Mabel's who is slipping inexorably into insanity. As uncomfortable as Annie makes them, Mabel and Vonnie are more concerned with silencing her vivid recounting of old scandals and the pain they caused. In the second play, The Dearest of Friends, it is several months later, and Vonnie is facing the crisis of a husband who is involved with another woman and who wants a divorce. Mabel and her husband, Jack, are sympathetic to Vonnie's plight but, again, cannot bring themselves to face its disturbing implications. In the third play, Spring Dance, several years have passed, and Annie is now confined to a sanatorium. She and her fellow patients are scrupulously polite and considerate of each other and, obviously, totally divorced from reality. The asylum culture reflects the larger culture—but here the isolation is total and sadly irreversible.

Cast

Mabel Votaugh	Amy Bruner
Vonnie Hayhurst	Linda Walden-Morrell
Annie Gayle Long	Patricia Simmons
Mr. Long	Daniel Mainwaring
Jack Votaugh	Keith Prendergast
Eddie Hayhurst	Van Golden
Dave Dushon	Mike Walden
Cecil Henry	Terry Jones
Greene Hamilton	Hunt Scarritt

 

Production Staff

Director	Yolanda Reed
Assistant Director	Joshilyn Jackson
Scene Designer	John Pettegrew
Costume Designer	Nora Place
Lighting Designer	Peter B. Young
Technical Director	David Maysonet
Production Stage Manager	Susan Koffler
Properties	Joshilyn Jackson
Lighting Control	David Heeg
Sound Control	Pam Perry