Playing with History
LEECHBURG — In celebration of Freeport's 175th Anniversary, the Freeport Theatre Festival will produce Rennick Steele's "Massey Harbison." The play is back by request of the Freeport Renaissance Committee, which wanted it for the anniversary celebration of the founding of Freeport.
"It is our most popular play," Steele said.
"Massey Harbison" is a historical drama about a genuine pioneer heroine, who with grit, determination and faith not only survived captivity by renegade warriors near present-day Freeport but persevered and established a homestead whose descendents continue to thrive in the area.
"I originally wrote the play 'Beloved Woman' about Nancy Ward, a famous Cherokee leader, for my mother, who is a direct descendant. Then I wrote 'Washington in the Ohio Country,'" explained Steele.
Both of the plays were successful, which led Angelo Yerace, a member of the Freeport Historical Society, to ask Steele to write a play about Massey Harbison, a well-known historic figure in Freeport.
"I was initially reluctant because I am part Cherokee and am a voting member of the Cherokee Nation," said Steele, whose father is Scots-Irish. "His people were among the early settlers of Westmoreland County. Therefore, I saw this struggle for the land from both perspectives."
Bonnie Cahill of Jefferson Township will star as the older Massey, who is sharing her story with her niece Mary.
"The play is the memories of Massey's life on the frontier on the Allegheny in the late 1790s just after the Revolution," Cahill explained.
Cahill herself has a unique connection to the story.
"The Indian raid in which Massey was captured was organized by Simon Girty, a white man whose sympathies were entirely with the Indians fighting encroachment on their lands by the white settlers," Cahill said. "My sister's late husband, Edward Girty, was a direct descendent of Simon Girty."
Young Massey is portrayed in the play by Alexandra Kough of Cowanshannock Township.
"She is a very free and outgoing young woman which is how she captures the eye of her husband, John," Kough said.
"Massey is very strong and brave both physically and mentally. She endures many hardships but survives them all with her strength," she said, noting that she loves playing a character that people can look up to.
Massey's husband was a scout for Gen. Richard Butler and fights in one of his campaigns in the Ohio country during the drama, which takes place both inside and outside the auditorium.
The theater festival was founded in 1989 by Rennick and Marushka Steele and is based on a farm in the rural Allegheny Valley.
The Steeles are products of the Off-Off Broadway Alliance of the 1970s in New York City.
Rennick trained at the Circle in the Square and was a founding member of Theatre of the Evening Light. He is a member of the Dramatist's Guild and a graduate of Ohio State University and UCLA Graduate School of Education.Marushka is a graduate of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City. She studied with Max Fisher and Charles Nelson Reilly and is a founding member of Academy Arts Theatre Company. Marushka is a graduate of Chatham College and the University of Toronto, Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama."The palpable depression of the area in 1989 inspired us to establish the theatre as a means to serve the valley's communities with plays chosen to lift spirits and entertain, as well as provide an outlet for the area youth to get involved in a different kind of "team effort," said the Steeles.Also offered this season will be "Arms and the Man.""The two plays we offer this season are bound by the theme of heroism. Both plays beg the question: What makes a hero or heroine?" said Marushka."'Arms and the Man' holds the mirror up to the questionable heroism of bluster and dash, and its hero is a most unlikely man, a 'chocolate cream' soldier," she explained.In addition to plays, the Freeport Theatre Festival also presents desserts, poetry readings and musical fare.The Steeles' passion for the arts and their willingness to both share them and involve the community has resulted in more than 20 productions of major classics, as well as a variety of productions by local playwrights."If our arts diminish, we diminish as a society," said Marushka about their efforts in theater."Our passion is fed by a desire to share experiences which will uplift and inspire in terms of our relationship to each other as members of the human family: daughters of Eve and sons of Adam," she said."Massey Harbison" will run weekends through Aug. 3.Tickets for the play can be purchased at the theater on the evening of a performance or can be reserved in advance by calling 724-295-1934.
<B>WHO: </B>Freeport Theatre Festival<B>WHAT: </B>"Massey Harbison"<B>WHEN: </B>7:30 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from July 11 to Aug. 3<B>WHERE: </B>2498 White Cloud Farm, Leechburg, two miles southeast of Freeport, off Route 356.<B>TICKETS: </B>$12 for adults, $10 for senior citizens and students<B>INFORMATION: </B>Call 724-295-1934 or send e-mail to freeport_theatre_festival@comcast.net
