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38 MAY 2008 | eu jacksonville monthly | theatre & culture
local color on national tour
The Great American Trailer Park Musical
Starke, Florida isn’t normally the fi rst place you think of when writing
a musical, but for writers Betsy Kelso and David Nehls, it was perfect.
They’re the authors of The Great American Trailer Park Musical, which will
be coming to Jacksonville mid-May as part of the FCCJ Artists Series.
Nehls and Kelso began writing together in 1996, when they met as
actors on tour in Europe.
“A great friendship began
by being stupid on the tour
bus, creating silly songs and
even a small musical about a
hermaphrodite city,” Nehls tells
EU.
For Kelso and Nehls, the
goal of these musicals was
“just to do something fun and
original that we and our friends
could perform in.”
Nehls decided to give the
music a very bluesy fl avor both
because he’s a huge blues fan,
and because “country shows
have been done, Big River,
Best Little Whorehouse.., Das
Barbecu, so I felt it would be interesting to give this story more of a rough
edge with blues, rockabilly and a bit of country for good measure.”
While they were working on the musical, a Jacksonville resident
suggested Starke as the setting.
“Jerry Diaz is the friend who suggested Starke, and we had so much
info, but with the running time of
a musical these days, we had to
drop a lot of it …though we toyed
with making up a fi ctitious place,
but it didn’t feel right. Too phony.”
“It’s based rather loosely on
the actual town, there are no strip
joints there anymore, though there
were when we started writing
the show in 1997, or so we were
told.” Nehls says.
Set designer Jo Winiarski
didn’t base her sets solely on
Starke, but rather on the idea of
trailer parks.
“When working on the show,”
says Winiarski “I researched trailer
parks all over the county- a lot of
the detailing on the set actually came from a trailer park at the base of
Zion National Park in Utah. It seemed less important that it is was exactly
Starke, Florida than that it had a recognizable look.”
The set has an audacious, colorful appearance, designed with the
humor of the show in mind.
“Most real trailers are white or beige- not very theatrical [and] this is
by erin thursby
{ }
What: The Great American Trailer Park Musical
When: May 13 – 18th Where: The Wilson Center for the Performing Arts
not a show about realism–it is silly and bold and fun–so the color of the
set is as well. The representational / non realistic nature of the scenery
came from an idea that Stephen (the director) and I had about the chorus
telling the story with items that they have around the trailer park. The
show is too fast-paced to wait for the scenery to change – so we have
lots of fun transformations on the
set itself.” asserts Winiarski
The Great American Trailer Park
Musical has played in Florida
before. In fact, it played a scant
40 miles from Starke at the
Gainesville Hippodrome several
years ago. We asked Nehls how
the people of Starke felt about the
show.
“[The Mayor had]…
trepidations about the show
playing so close to home, but he
really enjoyed it, though he would
have toned down the language a
bit.” Nehls replied.
But there wasn’t any reason
for anyone to be offended, since
Nehls considers himself a product of white trash roots.
“My favorite memory,” says Nehls “was always shooting at toilets
in the dump with my friends from high school or chugging Miller High
Life while smoking Tiperillos. And as far as celebrating my peeps, the
tour played my hometown in PA and was a resounding success. This is
a sweet, raucous evening in the
theatre, but never are we making
fun of these characters. They
might be loud, sometimes foul
mouthed, and in your face, but
they all have a soft underside to
them and I’m proud to say that
by the end you fi nd yourself truly
caring about the plight of these
people. You may even get a bit
teary eyed, because they are
proud of what their lives consist
of, roof over their heads, food
on the table and lots to gossip,
er, talk about. Thangs could be a
helluva lot worse on ‘This Side of
the Tracks.’
The Great American Trailer
Park Musical will be performed at the Wilson Center for the Arts Tuesday,
May 13 through Sunday, May 18, 2008. Tickets range in price from
$37.50 to $45.00. To order by phone with Visa, MasterCard, American
Express or Discover call the FCCJ Artist Series Box Offi ce at (904) 632-
3373 (toll-free outside of Jacksonville 1-888-860-BWAY.) Discounts are
available for groups of 15, 40 or 60 by calling (904) 632-3228.