Directing Chicken & Biscuits is a dream I never knew I had until I was first introduced to it!
I was looking for plays to produce the following school year and a friend recommended reading this one. Within three pages I was in love. My passion has always been educational theatre and theatre with a message… This show had it all.
When my journey began, I didn’t know how far it would take me. From pushing for months to get approval, to casting an amazing group of students, and all the way to opening the show this weekend; it seems unreal. The characters within these pages are beyond authentic and offer a look into a beautiful world created by Douglas Lyons. We can all see ourselves in at least one of the characters, or point out the people we have in our lives that are brought to life onstage. Telling this story has been an experience that I will never forget! I have those shows that I have loved and that will stay with me in one way or another, but I have never felt truly changed in my core at the words spoken on the page before.
Thank you to everyone that has shared this journey with me, in one way or another. Thank you to Douglas for the relationship we have built and the partnership I feel as we worked together to make this show happen at a high school. Thank you to my amazing creative team, with whom I would have been lost long ago. But most of all, thank you to the cast and crew who have given me the opportunity to lead and direct in this life-changing experience. You are more amazing than you will ever know! I am humbled by your trust and your courage to tell this story in the most authentic way imaginable.
Thank you to the audience who came to support and hear our story. You are now a part of our family!
Huh-huh-HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!
- Timothy LaBelle
