"PURE AS THE DRIVEN SNOW"

My friend Kathy was in a play put on by CAST (Community Alliance for Stage and Theatre), "Pure as the Driven Snow", a Paul Loomis comedy.  The play was held on a really neat little outdoor stage in the town square of Douglasville, GA (about 20 miles from Atlanta) on three consecutive Saturday nights.  There was only a single, very minimal set for the entire three act play.  Sound and lighting was crude (two microphones and a few painter-style flood lights), but was also quaint and quite adequate.  Yes, the location was small and simple, but the play itself was not.  Kathy was one of thirteen actors in the three hour production.  She was even in all three acts!

Pure as the driven snow is a 1930s style melodrama...well, actually it's a parody of one, which means it's even more melodramatic.  There's the typical villain, Mortimer Frothingham, a pure, sweet heroine named Purity Dean, and of course, an upright hero, Leander Longfello.  Leander is a foreman at the pickle factory and also helps out his aunt and uncle (Jonathan and Zamah Logan) run a small inn.  The entire play takes place in the lobby area of the inn.  There a "terrible secret" that Purity has been hiding.  The villain Mortimer, of course, wants Purity.  Purity wants Leander and he wants her but she can't let it happen because of her secret.  Another character, Imogene (played by Kathy's friend Kristin) wants Leander.  Mortimer is up to no good including swindling and having his sidekick, Jolene, an ex-con (played by Kathy) kidnap a baby for ransom.  Desire leads to deceit, jealousy leads to mistrust, and the whole thing is very funny.  It was a great play, and I'm not saying that just because Kathy was in it.

[Click here for an article on the play from the Douglas County Sentinel newspaper and click here for the playbill.]

Okay, so now what?  Well, here are some photos I took on its opening night.  You can see how barren the set is, but believe me, it didn't take away from the enjoyment one bit.  (Well, okay, maybe that one darn light that was occasionally blocking my view slightly was a little distracting, but I can forgive that.)  I'm not going to even attempt to describe what was going on in each scene.  You'll have to just settle for the characters' names.

Oh, and by the way, yes Kathy's face is supposed to look dirty...
[Note: The mouse-over-picture text has nothing to do with lines from the play.]
 

Jolene (Kathy), Mortimer and Jonathan.

Purity, Jonathan, Zamah and Leander.

Jolene (Kathy) and Mortimer.

Leander and Purity.

Imogene (Kristin) and Leander.

Imogene (Kristin), being a very convincing conniving bitch!

Do I really need to repeat myself?

Imogene (Kristin), whatshername, Zamah, and Purity.

Yup. Jolene (yes, Kathy) Leander, and Purity.

Oh figure this one out for yourself. (Looking a little perturbed, eh?)

Mortimer disguised as a woman, and yep, you guessed it.

Last, we have most of the cast.  (I couldn't get them all in one shot and the others started walking off before I got the second shot.  Their loss ;-)

(To Frank's home page)