Wilderness Wanderings: WRITING TOMBSTONES chapter 199

I wish I had kept all the rewrites we went through in putting No Time For Tombstones together. I have no doubt the cast hated me for giving them a new rewrite at almost every rehearsal. They never said it, but I’m sure they wondered when I would be satisfied. One night they have a few pages to memorize and then next meeting I would throw those all out and give them a new ones. Even worse, they were working on a script without an ending. I didn’t even really like the beginning, had no ending and we were working on the middle. I doubt that’s the best way to write a play.

The cast: Jeri-Lynn Hougestal and Liz Cameron were the two girls. I had decided to use a narrator to move the story along. There was just too much needed to set the stage. One would take that role; the other would play a Viet Cong. The four guys I had were Garry Tollefson, Con Hild, Dale Dyck and Harvey Thiessen. Gary Brohmer made the mistake of mentioning to me that he was interested. I kept on him until he relented and joined the team. These poor people were ever so patient, understanding and willing to do anything. They were writing the play with me. Everyone had input and the play rightly belongs to the entire first team. They rewrote lines, changed movements and batted around ideas, discussed movement, placement and various actions. While a lot happened on their march, it was a challenge to communicate the trauma.

Our problem was how to grab attention immediately and then hold on to it. We needed a hook. We finally decided to open with a bang. Literally. Their captors pushed the three captives on the stage with a young Vietnamese boy. The boy made a break for it and immediately the sound of and AK-47 was heard. It was so loud we got everyone’s attention. The sad part is that a young boy had been taken with the three main characters and he was shot trying to escape.

While writing the play Garth Hunt came to campus to speak. What a gift he was. This missionary had just escaped from Vietnam on one of the last planes out Saigon (Hanoi) before it fell to the Communists. I had several talks with him while he was at CBC. I needed to know what things looked like and felt like. He told me the officers wore uniforms, but the Viet Cong wore dark gray to black pajama like clothes. They wore sandals that were made out of old rubber tires. The guns were AK-47’s. He offered to send me photos copies of the guns so we could replicate them in the workshop.

I talked with the men in maintenance and they agreed to help. They secured some old tires and cut the sandals. They then attached straps made from inner tubes to hold them on. They looked much like thongs and took some time to get used to them on your feet. The also carved the general shape of the AK-47 and put metal barrels into the stock so they would hold up on tour. The guys were terrific and this play needed their expertise. I could not have done them. I did the final shaping of the guns and painted them. They looked terrific.

I had another dream that I pitched to president Dave Rambo. I felt we needed a small set of lights so we could control the mood and help with the transformation from day to night. I did some research and some how he pushed it through and we got our lights. It was fun to play with a new toy. We had a great number of lights already hanging in the gym for the school presentation, but used only eight for tour.

Rehearsal photos taken at the gym stage.
This series dealing with the forced marches

Eventually the play came together and we premiered it to the school and community before youth conference and again during youth conference. I blew it. We never contacted the media. I have regrets about that. On the other hand, we had no idea how it was going to be received. Talk about nervous. We all had the jitters. To me, this was a much more significant story and one out audience cared about hearing. We presented the play two nights to give each cast a change for the lead roles. It was a grand opening. We were thrilled and relieved.

My family sat in the first row for both shows. Rhonda tells me she felt proud and special. They were in the makeup room before the shows and got their reserved seats just before curtain. You only imagine our relief when the play ended with thunderous applause.