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Evening of Literature, Theatre at Old Capitol
A one-night-only theatrical performance at the Old Capitol Museum will feature the work of some of the state’s literary icons. Scenes from William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, and Richard Wright will be performed alongside works from contemporary Mississippi writers such as Natasha Trethewey and John Grisham in “Mississippi Talking: An Evening with New Stage Theatre.” The gala event will be held January 14 from 5:30 to 8 p.m.
“This is a wonderful way to experience literature, theater, and history together,” said Old Capitol Museum director Lauren Miller. “From the humor of Willie Morris’s grade-school reminiscence in Good Ole Boy to the determination of Margaret Walker’s poem “For My People,” this program demonstrates the scope and power of our state’s writers.”
The pieces will be performed by Chris Ambrose, Matthew Denton, Allison Heinz, and Bri Thomas from the New Stage Theatre Intern Company. “Some scenes include all four actors, while others feature only a single performer,” said New
Stage education director Chris Roebuck. “Mississippi Talking is designed around minimal set pieces and relies on the performers’ voices and bodies to tell the story, letting the audience fill in the details for themselves.”
Conceived as a traveling show for school groups twenty-five years ago,
Mississippi Talking has evolved with new selections and authors ranging from Shelby Foote to Beth Henley. This year’s version was inspired by New Stage Theatre’s main stage season, which has already featured Henley’s Crimes of the Heart and Grisham’s A Time to Kill.
“As we celebrate fifty seasons of New Stage we wanted to highlight Mississippi’s rich storytelling and literary traditions,” said New Stage artistic director Francine
Reynolds. “The slate of plays we’ve chosen celebrates the past and honors our Mississippi roots, and Mississippi Talking complements that focus.”
Four of the ten authors featured in “Mississippi Talking” are also members of the Mississippi Hall of Fame—Faulkner, Welty, Williams, and Wright— which honors individuals who have made significant contributions to the state. Portraits of Hall of Fame members hang in the Senate Chamber and other areas of the Old Capitol.
In addition to the performance the evening includes wine and hors d’oeuvres. Tickets are $40 each. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the performance will begin at 6 p.m. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 601 -576-6920.
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An Evening with New Stage Theatre
January 14, 2016 5:30-8 p.m.
Donation Strengthens Gulf Coast Photo Holdings
MDAH Photo Curator Jeff Rogers examines postcards from the Randazzo Collection at the state archives.
Long-time postcard collector and Biloxi native Randy Randazzo has donated more than 5,000 postcards and negatives of south Mississippi to the Mississippi Department of Archives and history. This new collection provides a rare look at life at the turn of the twentieth century through 1960 with 4,322 color and black and white postcards of shipbuilding, hotels, hurricanes, agriculture, seafood factories, Camp Shelby, Keesler Air Base, and Ship Island. Back Bay factories, regatta races, the annual blessing of the fleet, and other moments largely lost to time are the subject of the 751 negatives from 1920s and 30s Biloxi and Gulf Coast.
“For many years we had heard about this premier collection of postcards documenting Mississippi’s
Gulf Coast,” said MDAH Archives and Records Services director Julia Marks Young. “The Randazzo Collection is a very generous donation and will be a superb addition to the department’s holdings.”
A ninth generation Biloxian, Randazzo credits his interest in history and collecting to an uncle. After an army career, graduate school in Texas, and a move to Atlanta, he began collecting postcards in 1992 when he came across a set of antique postcards of Biloxi and Pass Christian while Christmas shopping.
“I started seriously collecting in 1993 and for many years would arrange my travel schedule around postcard conventions,” said Randazzo. “After twenty years and over 4,000 cards it was hard to find something I didn’t have, and I was ready
to donate them. I was very impressed with the level of professionalism at the state archives and that they will be put online so people can access them but the cards will be safe from hurricanes.”
The collection is currently being cataloged and will then be scanned. When complete, the Randazzo Collection will join the forty collections currently featured in MDAH’s Digital Archives.