Staff writer
detheridge@coastalcourier.com
The latest play written by Liberty County Commissioner Donald Lovette will bring several little-known chapters from the county’s rich African-American history to light.
Lovette’s theater company, Love-It Productions Inc., will perform “The Rest of the Story” at 6 p.m. Saturday and at 5 p.m. Sunday, at Full Gospel Tabernacle at 809 Frank Cochran Drive in Hinesville. The production is sponsored by the Liberty County Historical Society and Full Gospel Tabernacle Church of God in Christ.
“We did one last year that focused on Liberty County,” Lovette said. “But there are so many stories. I had to do a continuance.”
The homegrown playwright said many people in the community are not aware there were towns once located on what is now Fort Stewart, the 280,000-acre military installation that covers parts of Liberty, Long, Bryan and Tattnall counties.
The history surrounding Dorchester Academy will be explored, Lovette said, and the performance will include facts about the first African-American church in Liberty County and present folklore from Willie, a long-gone community that once existed on Fort Stewart.
“We also portray a lady named Aunt Francis Fudge who was a midwife and untrained physician,” he said. “Back then, it was too expensive or too far for most people to see a doctor, so they would go to Aunt Francis.”
Lovette said Fudge was renowned for her knowledge of natural herbs and remedies.
He said the play, written to celebrate Black History Month, was scheduled to be performed in March so as not to compete with February’s busy activities calendar. The commissioner has written close to 20 plays, many of them for the yearly Martin Luther King Jr. birthday celebration and his church.
Lovette said his cast is a mixture of local people descended from founding families in the African-American community and others are “talented transplants.”
Ricky Anderson, a Liberty County native, said he learned, through Lovette’s well-researched script, about how some of the African-American churches originated.
Anderson portrays a slave in the play. He said participating in “The Rest of the Story” gives him insight into how life was for his parents and grandparents.
“My dad was born in Willie, a town that used to be on Camp Stewart, now the reservation of Fort Stewart,” Anderson said.
Bradwell Institute senior Jasmine Tyson, a member of Lovette’s Love-It Productions group, portrays a girl who learns how to read. Tyson’s character is the daughter of an illiterate mother.
“I’m learning a whole lot,” she said. “I never knew some of the quotes from Langston Hughes and some of the other writers. It helped give me a better understanding of Liberty County and its founding.”
Tyson plans to major in theater and mass communication when she attends college next year.
Lovette’s cast began rehearsing in early March, and his performers say his plays come together quickly. Along with scenes of historical significance, the production promises music.
Admission is $10 per person, children 12 and younger cost $5 and VIP tickets are $20. Tickets are available at WGML, Full Gospel Church and TOP Book Store.
For more information, call Andrew Williams at 977-3293.
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