March 14 - April 12, 2019 - First Stage

SE T TING THE STAGE SYNOPSISa song about their differences, despite being closefriends. Jim expresses the pain he feels being separatedfrom his mother and sister, while Huck wishes that he hada mother and a place to call home.before contacting the authorities. Huck also tells MaryJane about the hidden sack of gold coins and promises toleave a note about its location. Mary Jane kisses Huck outof gratitude. Huck, Jim, and Mary Jane sing about hardgoodbyes in “Leavin’s Not the Only Way to Go.”Huck confronts Duke and King about chaining up Jim,and when they refuse to unchain him, Huck tells themthat he and Jim will be going on their own. The Kingreveals that he knows Huck is not truly the owner of Jimand threatens to turn the two of them in if they try andleave. They approach the town of Hillsboro as Duke andKing prepare to attempt a scheme.Just as Huck is about to leave, he is stopped by King andDuke who demand that he stay and plot their escape,with or without the bag of gold coins. King tells Duke togo and sell Jim in order to buy steamboat tickets andthe Duke exits. The sheriff arrives, exposes King as afraud, and places him under arrest while Huck makes hisescape and runs to save Jim. However, when he arrivesat the raft, Jim is not there.At a ferry crossing in Hillsboro, the group encounters ayoung man singing to himself about his beloved home:“Arkansas.” The young man mistakes the King as areverend named Harvey Wilkes, whose wealthy brotherPeter has just passed away. They leave for the Wilkeshome planning to take advantage of the situation.Huck waits for Jim, who he believes might have broken hischain and ran away for safety. In the darkness, Duke appears.He has been tarred and feathered by the townspeople. Hetells Huck that he sold Jim to a farmer named Silas Phelpsfor 40 dollars. Duke advises Huck to return home and exits,embarrassed by his own appearance.The group arrives at the house where Peter Wilkes’daughter Mary Jane and Councilor Robinson mournwhile Mary Jane’s servant Alice sings a hymn: “HowBlest Are We.” The King speaks with a phony Englishaccent and the Duke pretends to be his deaf brother,William in order to trick the others. The con artistspretend to be devastated by the loss while Huck takesa liking to Mary Jane. Mary Jane then produces a letterfrom Peter granting 6,000 in gold coins to his brothers:The Reverend Harvey Wilkes and William. The Councilorsees through the crooks’ façade and begs Mary Janeto not give them the inheritance. However, Mary Janeis insistent, granting the gold coins and power over heraffairs to her so-called uncles.The Duke’s advice affects Huck, who writes a letter to MissWatson explaining Jim’s whereabouts and how she canreclaim him. However, he recalls the memories that he andJim shared on their journey down the river and quickly tearsit apart. Reenergized, Huck sings “Waitin’ for the Light toShine,” and heads to the Phelps farm to steal back Jim.Huck arrives at the Phelps farm where Sally Phelpsmistakes him for her nephew that she has not seen inmany years. Sally directs Huck to hide in order to surpriseSilas and he does so. It is revealed that the Phelps believeHuck is actually Tom Sawyer, Huck’s good friend. Hucksneaks away to find Jim who is being kept in a smallshed. They greet one another and Huck promises toreturn that night, chisel away Jim’s chain, and set himfree. Elated, Jim sings the song “Free at Last.”The King and Duke order everyone to return the next dayfor Peter’s funeral. That night, Huck steals the bag of goldcoins from the Duke and King while they sleep and hides itin the coffin with the body. Huck hears a noise and hidesas Mary Jane and Alice enter the room. Mary Jane asksAlice for advice and Alice recommends that Mary Jane istoo trusting of her “uncles” and should take care of herself.Mary Jane expresses that she does not see Alice as aservant, but rather as a sister and they comfort one another.That night, Huck returns and sets Jim free, but they arecaught by Silas who will stop at nothing to get Jim backand punish Huck. Just then, Sally enters with a letterfrom her sister explaining that Miss Watson passed awayand made the decision to set Jim free on her deathbed:Jim is a free man. Jim and Huck sing “River in the Rain(Reprise)” as they make their way back to the river.The next day, following the funeral, a horrified Alice informsMary Jane that the King has sold her to new owners inNew Orleans. Mary Jane confronts the King who revealshis plans to sell the family home and force Mary Jane tocome along with him. Seeing Mary Jane is upset, Huckapproaches and tells her the truth about her “uncles.”Mary Jane wants to contact the sheriff immediately, butHuck tells her that doing so would put Jim at risk of beingcaught. He asks her to give he and Jim time to run awayHuck invites Jim to join him on more adventures into theWestern Territories, but Jim declines saying that he needs togo North in order to earn money to free his mother and sister.Jim leaves and Huck plots his next move—content to live onthe road and search for his true home. The company singsthe reprise of “Muddy Water” as the play ends.4

ABOUT THE COMPOSER: ROGER DE AN MILLERTaken directly from: https://www.sunrecords.com/artists/roger-millerOne of the most multifaceted talents country music has ever known, Roger Dean Miller left a musical legacy of astonishingdepth and range. A struggling honky-tonk singer and songwriter when he first hit Nashville in 1957, he blossomed into acountry-pop superstar in the 1960s with self-penned crossover hits like “Dang Me” and “King of the Road.” In 1965–66 hewon eleven Grammy awards. Two decades later, he received a 1985 Tony award for his score for BIG RIVER, a Broadwaymusical based on Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. In between such career triumphs, Miller kept friendsand fans in constant stitches as his extemporaneous wit proved almost as famous as his music.Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Miller was sent to live with an uncle in Erick, Oklahoma (“population 1500, and that includesrakes and tractors,” he liked to joke), when he was three years old. He grew up in Erick, working the family farm anddreaming of a different life. As a teenager enamored of Bob Wills and Hank Williams, Miller would drift from town to town inTexas and Oklahoma, trying to land nightclub work as a country singer. Drafted during the Korean War, he was sent to FortMcPherson in Atlanta, where he played fiddle in a Special Services outfit called the Circle A Wranglers. While stationed inAtlanta he met Bill Anderson, and the two young would-be country stars embarked on a life-long friendship.After his discharge, Miller headed to Nashville. While working as a bellhop, he wormed his way into the local musiccommunity. He was first hired to play fiddle in Minnie Pearl’s road band, then, in about the spring of 1957, he struck up afriendship with George Jones. Impressed with Miller’s songwriting, Jones introduced him to Pappy Daily and Don Pierce ofStarday Records. Miller’s first single, “My Pillow” b/w “Poor Little John,” was released on Starday in the fall of 1957. In themeantime, Jones and Miller had co-written some songs, including “Tall, Tall Trees,” which Jones released in 1957 to littleresponse, but which Alan Jackson wouldtake to #1 nearly forty years later.After a brief return to the Southwest, Millerwas hired in 1958 to front Ray Price’sCherokee Cowboys. From that position, hesuggested that Price cover “Invitation to theBlues,” a song Miller had written that wasstarting to take off in Rex Allen’s version.Released as the B-side of Price’s 1958smash “City Lights,” “Invitation to the Blues”rose to #3 on the charts, giving Miller hisfirst major success in the business.Signed to Tree Publishing as a staff writerin 1958, Miller began to see his tunesrecorded by such stars as Ernest Tubb,Jim Reeves, and Faron Young. (He alsoserved for a time as Young’s drummer.)Though he had continued to record forStarday and then Decca, he had nosuccess as an artist until he signed with RCA in 1960. His first RCA single, “You Don’t Want My Love,” became his first TopForty hit. It was followed a year later by his first Top Ten, “When Two Worlds Collide,” which he had written with his friendBill Anderson.Miller’s RCA career never quite panned out, though, and by 1963 he was ready to quit Nashville to pursue an acting careerin Los Angeles. He had made guest appearances on the Jimmy Dean Show and the Tonight Show, and his humor had beenwell received. Late that year, when his RCA contract ran out, he was picked up by Smash Records, in part because a Smashexecutive had liked Miller’s TV routine. An agreement was struck whereby Miller would cut a single and an additional album’sworth of material for 100 per side, thereby raising the money he would need to finance his move. Not only did the recordingspay for the move, they made Roger Miller a star, for out of those off-the-cuff 1964 sessions came “Dang Me.”A #1 smash on the country charts, “Dang Me” was also a Top Ten pop hit, as were four more of the singles he released during hisfirst two years on Smash. The most famous was “King of the Road,” a million-seller. Miller’s success was all the more astoundingfor having arrived during the British Invasion. With his exceptional wordplay and jazz-like delivery, he was able to compete with the5

ABOUT THE COMPOSER:ROGER DE AN MILLER (CONT.)Taken directly from: tles and the Rolling Stones on the pop charts. While he is often remembered as a novelty specialist, due to mid-sixties hits suchas “Chug-a-Lug” and “Kansas City Star,” he was capable of great soulfulness, as on the Top Five hit “Husbands and Wives.”By 1968, fearing his own songwriting well had run dry, Miller turned to the work of other imaginative young Nashvillewriters, such as Kris Kristofferson, whose “Me and Bobby McGee” was recorded first by Miller. He continued to record intothe 1970s, and in 1974 he provided soundtrack music for the Walt Disney movie Robin Hood. Still, Miller became less of aforce on radio as the decade progressed. He apparently didn’t mind, for he was content to live a quieter life with his thirdwife, Mary Arnold (formerly a singer with Kenny Rogers and the First Edition), and their children. And so he would havedone had he not been talked into writing the score for BIG RIVER.Opening on Broadway in 1985, BIG RIVER was, in Miller’s own eyes, the crowning achievement of his career. Rejuvenated by its success, hemaintained an active career through the remainder of the decade. In 1991, though, he left the road when he learned he had cancer. He foughtthe disease for a year, but died on October 25, 1992. Three years later he was inducted posthumously into the Country Music Hall of Fame.ABOUT THE PL AY WRIGHT:WILLIAM THORNTON HAUPTMANTaken directly from: -00033.htmlPlaywright and novelist William Thornton Hauptman was born November 26, 1942, in Wichita Falls, Texas, to workingclass parents raised in the Midwest. As a child in Wichita Falls, Hauptman attended many plays, readings, and magicshows in the large municipal auditorium there, and saw such actors as Charles Laughton and Gene Autry. He graduatedfrom Wichita Falls Senior High School in 1961, and earned a B.F.A. in Drama from the University of Texas in 1966. Hisundergraduate degree focused on acting; Hauptman did not decide until graduate school that he wanted to pursueplaywriting. He completed an MFA in playwriting at Yale University School of Drama in 1973. He then went on to teachplaywriting at Adelphi College in Garden City, NY, 1973-75, and at Yale University School of Drama, 1976.Soon thereafter Hauptman became the recipient of numerous grants which enabled him to pursue his writing full time. Hewon playwriting grants from CBS (1977), the National Endowment for the Arts (1977), and the Guggenheim Foundation(1978). Many award-winning plays followed. The first was a Distinguished Playwriting/Obie Award for DOMINO COURTS/COMANCHE CAFÉ 1978. For DENMARK VESEY (1981 PBS teleplay) he won a NAACP Freedom Foundation Awardand an Emmy Award nomination. For BIG RIVER (1985), a Broadway musical based on Mark Twain’s The Adventures ofHuckleberry Finn, with music written by Roger Miller, he earned a Tony Award for BestMusical Book, Boston Theater Critics Circle Award for Best New Musical, San DiegoTheatre Critic’s Circle for Award for Best New Play. For the play GILLETTE, he wonLos Angeles Drama League Award for Distinguished Playwriting (1986). For GOODROCKIN’ TONIGHT AND OTHER STORIES (1986), he received the Jesse JonesAward for

At Jim’s camp, Jim reveals to Huck that he has just escaped from slavery . Jim plans to sail down the Mississippi to a town called Cairo, where he will enter the Ohio River and float North to freedom . Huck offers to travel with Jim, posing as his owner in order to help him avoid capture, and they become unlikely friends .