My beloved Vulcan Park and Museum commissioned me to write a play about Southern political activist Virginia Durr. I had to confess I didn’t know who Virginia Durr was. But after absorbing her memoir Outside the Magic Circle I couldn’t wait to get started. Research turned up hours of interviews with her and countless newspaper stories about her. From all of that it seemed a simple matter to craft the narrative that became Too Many Questions: an Evening with Virginia Durr.
I was inspired along the way by the certain knowledge that the perfect actor for the role was already out there: my friend of many years Virginia Stahlman Crooks. I wrote the script with Ginny in mind and she’s been performing it to wide acclaim ever since.
The idea of the play is that it’s the night of Rosa Parks’ arrest, and Virginia’s lawyer husband Clifford is at the jail talking to Rosa about whether or not this is the time to try a lawsuit against the bus company. And that’s all true, that happened … but for the sake of the play, we’re pretending that on that night, Virginia Durr has invited guests over for tea. And that’s who you are, in the audience: the guests who’ve been invited, not expecting that Virginia’s house would tonight be part of a crucial decision point in American history. The phone keeps ringing while Virginia is trying to tell stories of her life, and every time we think it’s going to be Clifford with news of Rosa’s decision… !
Think you'd like to read more? I'll be happy to send you a script!
The performance and video rights are in a complex state at this moment, but please contact me for more information!
