From the Director
Welcome to RCP’s production of Footloose the Musical! I’ve been extremely thrilled to have an audience and am
forever grateful for your support on this production. We all grew up watching the classic film starring the incredibly
talented Kevin Bacon and jamming out to musical hits by Kenny Loggins, so this show can naturally become a
nostalgic retreat for most. It’s loud, it’s fun, and it’s the 80’s! Footloose is based off of a true story in Elmore City, a
small town in Oklahoma. Occupants have said, “If the South is the Bible Belt, we are the buckle.”
Dancing was actually outlawed from 1898-1980 in the town because the Reverend and others thought that it would lead to alcohol, fights, and “dancing in the sheets”, but Leonard Coffee, Rex Kennedy, and Mary Ann Temple-Lee (the teens who Ren, Willard, and Ariel are based off of) fought for their right to dance. They were just normal kids wanting to have fun and do the things that other kids got to do all over the world. Mary Ann’s father, Raymond Temple, who was also the school board president, cast the final vote in favor of the prom on March 3, 1980, because he thought that the kids dancing in one place while supervised was much safer than what the kids would’ve ended up doing, which was driving over the Table Top Mountains and getting drunk. That seems logical, right?
Hollywood and Dean Pitchford (lyricist for “Fame”) got wind of this and Dean traveled to Elmore City, interviewed them, and wrote “Footloose”, which was released in 1984.
No matter what your political stance is in our world today, it is evident that this story very much relates to the political standing that we’re in right now more than ever. We have to fight for things that are natural and for the good of all humankind, and to show our importance each day. African Americans are getting thrown out of Starbucks, homosexuals are waiting for their marriage rights to be taken away any day now, and are threatened to be put in hospitals to “help them” or “heal them.” Children and teachers are dying in schools rather than feeling safe in a space that they can learn and do their job. Families are being brutally separated from each other and aren’t sure whether or not they will ever see each other again. What are we doing to make things right in our world today?
The students from Elmore City in 1980 felt that they had been deprived of something that was completely natural to every human. They had been caged; never set free unless they moved far away from their loved ones and from their home. They had to fight for their God-given right to creatively express themselves and connect with others through dance and movement. I can’t imagine a world without music, can you? I can confidently say that losing my hearing and ability to love my life and others through music would break my heart forever. Music is life for me; I even danced in my mother’s womb.
I encouraged my actors early on to find something in their own lives that they could relate to this story and let it drive them through difficult rehearsals, exciting performances, and to the finish line. They’ve been such a dream of a cast and I couldn’t have asked for a better one. I’m glad that my theatre family has grown with these performers and crew members.
Get up out of your seat and dance with us if you need to, let yourself be free, and have fun through this performance of Footloose. Get ready to cut loose!
Director Leslie Marberry / lkmarberry@gmail.com
Playing it Forward
The Robertson County Players want to remind audience members that $1 of each ticket sold goes to the Springfield Middle School S.E.A.T.S. Project. For more information about this on-going effort to promote The Performing Arts in Robertson County Schools and our home stage, please visit our website.
The Robertson County Players
Founded in 1978, The Robertson County Players, a volunteer organization, have performed over 90 productions on the stages of Robertson County. We are proud of our community, and proud of the people who pour themselves into each and every production. Our goals as an organization have not changed in the many years since the curtain first opened. We hope you enjoy the show!
The Robertson County Players is a pround member of AACT, TTA, and the Robertson County Chamber of Commerce, and is licensed with ASCAP.
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The 2017-2018 Board of Directors
Amber DeForest (President), Connie Smith (Vice President), Cheryl Southard (Secretary), Rusty Riddle (Treasurer), Karen Ballentine, Ann Love Judd, JR Suter, Daniel Turner, Thom Wilson
