Morning Star Hikes Through ‘The War to End Slavery’

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Photo via Morning Star Productions - morningstarproductions.org

The War to End Slavery - Morning Star Productions

Morning Star Productions performs 'The War to End Slavery'

The Civil War can be pretty heavy stuff for any dramatist to tackle. But Mary Atwood, marketing director for Milwaukee's Morning Star Productions, promises of her company's latest presentation, The War to End Slavery, will satisfy the military aficionado but have enough heart to touch the poetic soul." 

Those who want to partake of that poetry will have to endure a bit of a hike though. Literally. 

“The audience of 10 people at a time, walk a quarter-mile trail to encounter a Union camp complete with tents and encampment paraphernalia,” she says. “As you enter, you hear the sounds of cannon and gunshots interspersed with the shouts of men from the speakers hidden in the woods. Also, they encounter a corporal on a picket line, a hospital tent and finally a cabin with a fireplace built,” built by her husband, Morning Star’s artistic director and the play’s author, Alan Atwood. Morning Star will stage The War to End Slavery at Cedar Springs Farm in Slinger, 2:30-4 p.m. Saturday, May 31 and Sunday, June 1. 

Audience Participation

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Photo courtesy of Morning Star Productions

The War to End Slavery - Morning Star Productions

Morning Star Productions performs 'The War to End Slavery'

Interactivity is nothing new for Morning Star, as audience participation has been an element in many of its offering since 2017, a decade after the company’s inception. As for Morning Star's general thrust, based on a Christian foundation, Atwood assures, “We always try to ‘bring in the light’ with each of our productions and try to bring the truth of hope into our stories. Even the mysteries we do are not murders, but thefts, apparent murders, or disappearances.” 

Theater lovers who admire extemporaneous performances should be intrigued with how Atwood's husband “wrote the scenario of the story and directs the actors to embellish with improvisation as they interact with the audience in each scene.” And those who demand authentic wardrobe in the historical productions they see should be satisfied, as a true Civil War buff designed the show's clothing. 

“Our costumer did reenactments for years and the love of those experiences caused her to create authentic costumes and props,” Atwood declares. Likewise, the bucolic setting Morning Star has acquired for playgoers (or should that be playwalkers?) to experience War rings true to theaters of battle of the era portrayed. 

“Cedar Springs Ranch has a very otherworldly, back-in-time feel to it,” Atwood observes. “Animals roam the penned-up fields, and it is very rural, very much like a Civil War battlefield would been in the 1860s.”

And though it's still war that provides the setting for the story's action, there's room for humor amid the strike. Atwood is particularly amused by one character and the thespian portraying her. 

Light Touch

“We have a very funny actress,” Atwood notes, “who used to do ComedySportz playing a stuck-up plantation owner. She and her children engage the audience members to help them since they're not used to accomplishing tasks for themselves. Their spot-on caricatures of the Southern belles who rely solely on the help of others—slaves or, in this case, the present audience—are fun to banter with." 

That lightness of touch and the spiritual undercurrent Morning Star brings to all of their offerings makes for a show about war for children up for the jaunt to see it as well. “Kids don't react with fear but always think it's very exciting!” Atwood promises.

 “A corporal at the picket line fends off attacks from the Confederates as he asks the audience to read his letter from home, since he is illiterate. One character has been wounded, another has lost a leg, and a girl disguises herself as a boy in order to fight in the battle,” Atwood says of the ways issues other than slavery are broached in the course of War.

An outdoor historical play will be a novel experience for many taking in War. But what if the weather isn't cooperative? Atwood's at the ready. “We do supply ponchos if necessary but so far the weekend weather looks great!”