HOW FASTER HORSES CAME TO BE
    It was a long, hard stay in an abandoned farmhouse that got me into Moravia.
It will take a long running hit called Faster Horses to get me out of there.
In my head anyway! In 2007 a local history house administrator learned
I was a writer, and handed me a book called ‘Joshua Man of the Finger Lakes’
It was an odd mish mosh of old stories handed down by one Rosencamp to another
(a father to his son) as a means of preserving some of the sordid history of the town.

     There wasn’t a single date or year anywhere and no semblance or order.
But there were some interesting yarns attempted to be spun.
The name of Bill Rockwell came up as the evil villain who took
advantage of the town. Research shows that Rockwell could mean
“Rockefeller” but the name was changed to protect the creators of the book..

     I spent about three months re reading and trying to sort it all out.
Then my characters started to talk to me. It’s a little like schizophrenia
but I can put them down on paper in a different place and time.
When my first writing was done, there were too many pages and
eighteen characters. My husband was still whining, “Are you not done
with that...yet?”

     That was just the beginning. Since then, we walked into the Arts Center in
Homer and talked to the director who got us together with Jack Carr,
Soon,, the outcome was an interested producing house in Cortland County.
Because of the emphasis on horses, and other facts from the book, I placed the time
of action just before the civil war. That would give me some time before
the railroads and within the time that the infamous “Loomis Gang” came to a peak
of action in the 1850’s. Since our villain is hooked up with them, time had to
coordinate.

     To my knowledge the only real from character by actual given name in my play is Dr.William Cooper, who is a relative of James Fenimore Cooper
, the writer. As to the rest, I’m told the names were modified in memory.
Whether its called a historical fiction or historical play, it’s meant to be
a suspenseful , old time , good time.

     Below see the pictures taken from the old “Rockwell estate”, last March.
We accidentally met Gloria and John Post of Rockefeller Rd in Moravia,
who let us walk their land. The pictures resulting from the land they now
own and want to sell. I had already written about the gullies and the plateaus
described in the book when I walked them courtesy of the Post’s last winter.
There were all the landmarks, already breathing in my play. Quite a feeling.
Leading up to recording reading of a few scenes at the Homer Center on May
11, the play had been streamlined a bit, characters doubling in some places to reduce
the number of actors, around 12 now. I’m afraid I killed off a few of
the children under12. In leaner economic times, size of cast becomes
a factor in funding and staging possibility. Also there is more adult
drama than room for child drama, but accents of the young teens Corneilia and
Frankie remain.


     The THEATRE RECORDING DAY ON THE MAIN STAGE
Now to the fun of May 11th , a recording first in the theatre for the house, the
recording company and the playwright. It was fun, illuminating and should result
in a nice package for finding funding. I want to thank all my actors, for their patience
and good work on the microphones, the sound company Glass Floor Productions,
Paul Smith and Kevin Miles and the ever helpful Center Producer for stage,
Jack Carr.