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a rough guide to this underworld

Inside the Script

When you tell stories for a living, you find out pretty quickly that you'd better pay attention, because stories will appear out of nowhere.

Two years ago, we were invited to produce two days' worth of outdoor theatre as the Theatre on the River as part of the 2004 Madison Chautauqua. We had some guest artists bring acts, and we knew that Riverrun would provide an act or two of our own. After some discussion, we decided we would premiere the first part in an ongoing project called RiverWords, a collection of monologues, essays, songs, poems, what have you, all about life in, on and around rivers. It made perfect sense, considering the setting. What better than to perform with the Ohio River racing behind us?

Jim Stark, our artistic director, asked me if I was going to contribute a piece. "What will it be about?" he asked. "Probably a river," I said, mostly joking. (That was about all I had at that moment.) He pointed out that the classical Underworld was said to have five rivers, maybe that would make a nice little monologue.

Two weeks later, we had five monologues--one for each river--and these became their own act in the festival, under the title The Rough Guide to the Underworld, a RiverWords event. Lindsay Bullock and Jim Erikson both took part in that original version, with me trying to keep up in the role of emcee. Two more weeks later, and we performed it again in Louisville at the St. James Court Art Show on the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival's outdoor stage. And that was that.

Of course, here we are with a full-length play with the same title. Yes, it does incorporate some of those original monologues, but there's so much more. Over the years, I had thought this might grow into a group of sketches, nothing more. I certainly didn't sit down and outline it to death. But in the end, the whole truly is more than the sum of its parts.

David J. Loehr
October 2006

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