Orange & Blue

Issue date: 2/26/10 Section: News

Dr. Sheridan Barker (l) and Kyle Biery (r) confer on cast decisions.

Dr. Sheridan Barker's play "Daughter of the Legend," which is based on the novel by Jesse Stuart will be performed for the first time in Gentry auditorium this spring.

In the story, a young man named Dave falls in love with a Melungeon girl of mixed descent called Deutsia Huntoon. The play is based on their story of prejudice and the many attempts to overcome it.

Kyle Biery will direct "Daughter of a Legend" and the Alpha Psi Omega organization will perform the play March 25 through the 27 at 7:30 p.m. in the Phoenix Theater. As of now, the individual roles have not yet been cast.

The book is set in Hancock County, TN about 80 years ago. It is based on a true story about the author Jesse Stuart falling in love with a Melungeon girl that he met at LMU. Stuart was an American writer known for his short stories, poetry, and Southern Appalachian novels.

The Melungeons are a real group of people of Turkish and Indian descent that settled in pockets of areas in Tennessee. They are generally Caucasian in appearance, often having dark hair and eyes and an olive complexion.

The legend is that this aboriginal group of people who lived in the hills of Eastern Tennessee and Appalachia arrived before the white settlers.

Dr. Barker can somewhat relate to the characters: "My wife and I have some Melungeon heritage," he said.

This is the first play written by Dr. Barker. He got the original idea for it while on a long train ride during which he read Stuart's semiautobiographical novel.

The novel engaged Dr. Barker and he decided it could be made into an interesting play. "It had so many things that I thought would come to life on the stage," Barker said.

Barker emailed the Jesse Stuart Foundation, who hold the copy write, and asked for their permission to write it. Jack Gifford responded and said that there were no plays in existence and that Barker should do it.

Something that Barker and Gifford were in agreement on was that being true to the book was most important, and so the play will follow the same lines, especially the ending.

"[The play] is going to have some moments of comic relief," Barker said, "But it's a heavy story with a realistic ending. It underscores how prejudice can keep people from understanding their full potential."

Converting a book to a play can make it come to life more, but it also comes with some difficulties. "The book has a lot of dialect in it and that's going to be interesting to translate to the stage," said Barker.

The most challenging scene to transform on the stage was probably either an outdoor church scene or one involving snake handling, and the hardest part is cutting scenes out, he said.

Barker has plans to take most of the original cast members on a field trip to Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, North Carolina this fall to perform the play. Also, a high school drama teacher in Kentucky is planning on doing a rendition of the play.

"I'm just delighted that this much interest has been shown," he said.

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