Staging the ‘Great Flood’

SWEET BRIAR — How do you re-create the Great Nelson County Flood onstage?

By letting the audience use its imagination. And by priming that imagination with darkened stage lights, the recorded thunder of a hard rain, and a strobe light flashing on and off to simulate lightning.

Geoffrey Kershner, director of the Endstation Theater Company’s production of “The Bluest Water” at Sweet Briar College, knows all about the power of imagery. Put a stocking cap on an actor in a film, he said recently, and say that he’s the Pope, and viewers will be highly skeptical. Put that same man onstage, and the audience is willing to accept it.

Just as three people sitting on a raised platform above the Babcock Auditorium stage become a helicopter pilot and passengers in “the Bluest Water,” and a flat wooden stage is somehow transformed into the summit of The Priest, the area’s loftiest mountain.

Maybe we are willing to play along because drama taps into our primal love of “pretend.” It takes us back to when we staged impromptu plays in our backyards, or dreamed of becoming our favorite TV character.

When Geoffrey Kershner was young, though, he was probably picking the kids and assigning them roles. The son of William Kershner, chairman of the theater department at Sweet Briar, he has returned to Amherst County like a boomerang.

“That helped with this play,” he said, “because I had grown up hearing about Camille.”

The Endstation Theater was born while Kershner and fellow Florida State University graduate student Krista Franco were taking a school trip to Germany.

“One of the theaters we visited there did a German version of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire,’” Kershner said, “and called it ‘Endstation.’ Krista and I had been talking about starting a theater company back in the U.S., and when we were thinking about names, that just kind of stuck with us. Plus, it’s appropriate for me, because I’ve come back home.”

As for locations for their project, Sweet Briar seemed ideal.

“The campus is pretty empty in the summertime,” he said, “and we’re able to sort of take it over.”

Plus, it was probably hard for Dad to say no.

This is the 40th anniversary of the night when 20-30 inches of rain swamped Nelson County within a few hours, triggering catastrophic mudslides and turning placid creeks into frothing destroyers.

The first few minutes, with the strobe light and some ominous, crashing guitar chords, planted the flood in the consciousness of the audience, which was seated on the stage itself.

“It wouldn’t have been the same if they were in the regular seats,” said Randolph College drama professor Ken Parks, who took on one of the lead roles. “We needed that intimacy.”

Parks and Sally Southall play two characters in present time who are struggling with the legacy of the flood. Paul Stober also has a prominent part, providing the surprise ending, and a “Nelson Ensemble” serves as a sort of Greek chorus, reciting facts about the flood and philosophical nuggets from various vantage points around the stage. One member of that ensemble, Wanda Bond, survived the flood at the age of 12.

“Wanda has been an immeasurable help,” said Kershner. “We’ve incorporated some of her memories.”

“The Bluest Water,” written by Jason Chimonides, made its debut last year in the first Endstation Theater season, part of Kershner’s determination to provide drama with local connections.

“A lot of people who survived the flood or lost relatives in it came last year,” Kershner said, “and the same thing has been happening this year. The nice thing is that we’ve been able to tweak the play in some areas and make it better this time around.”

Imagine that.