So, theater talk was typical and with the Broadway version of “Confederate Widow” just being staged, it was the topic of the day.
The novel is written as supposedly dictated to a visitor to the Falls, N.C. nursing home of 99-year-old Lucy Marsden, who was married around 1900 when she was 15 and her husband, Colonel William Marsden, was 50.
The time is contemporary, the 1980s, yet Lucy’s stories from her own and her husband’s life experiences span well over 120 years of American history.
Gurganus’ masterful telling captivated readers everywhere, so why did the play flop?
“Ellen (Burstyn) was wonderful,” Holding recalls. “She came down to North Carolina and we all enjoyed meeting her. She and Allan developed a friendship. The premise (of the Broadway play) was that Lucy was doing a greatest hits benefit for the rest home, and was there as an entertainer.
It was a musical variety show. It tried to include everything. It was frantic. Big stage, with video projections.”
So at dinner, Holding was talking about how the play was misconceived at its foundation. She suggested Hillsborough folk could do a better job.
“Allan was there as was Michael Malone, the founder of our amateur theater group, and Michael said, ‘You do that and that’ll be our next show.’”
This was about 2004- 2005.
“My concept was that instead of a sample of everything in the book, we would devote an evening of theater to Lucy talking about her marriage,” Holding says. “The key metaphor in the book, what holds the book together, is the overlay of the great myth of the Civil War with the great myth of a marriage.”
Allan Gurganus and Jane Holding went to work, taking scissors to the 736-page book, gluing onto paper just the sections that fit the new concept.
“No one wants to leave anything out, but that is not a service to the book,” Gurganus says. “Jane was sitting around and said, the play needs a central organizing theme – the marriage. That made a lot of sense.”
Holding’s first performance was a simple reading from the altar at the Episcopal Church in Hillsborough.
“It was snowing. It was the smallest, most home grown, truly ‘Little Rascals’ project in the world,” Holding recalls.