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Clarksville Academy Students to perform “The Montgomery County Chronicles” at the Roxy Regional Theatre

Clarksville AcademyClarksville, TN – Clarksville Academy students will present two free public viewings of a new play about the history of Clarksville. “The Montgomery County Chronicles: A Tribute to History, Community, and Leadership” is a new stage play, created by Shana Thornton, local author and publisher, that is scheduled to debut at The Roxy Regional Theatre for two performances.

“The Montgomery County Chronicles: A Tribute to History, Community, and Leadership” will be performed by Clarksville Academy Students at the Roxy Regional Theatre on May 3rd and May 5th.
“The Montgomery County Chronicles: A Tribute to History, Community, and Leadership” will be performed by Clarksville Academy Students at the Roxy Regional Theatre on May 3rd and May 5th.

You can see a free performance of “The Montgomery County Chronicles” at 7:00pm on Thursday, May 3rd, 2018, and Saturday, May 5th, 2018.

Directed by Ryan Bowie, the play will be performed by Clarksville Academy students. The students have participated in all aspects of the play’s production, from poster and playbill design, to costuming and music choices.

The action of the play opens at night in the apartment of an APSU student who must fulfill an assignment to write a history of Clarksville for the student newspaper. The student wants to write exciting current news instead.

That evening, the student falls asleep and dreams the history of Clarksville as told through the actual historical figures as characters and a Paperboy, who acts as the “mouthpiece” of the Leaf Chronicle, and often his lines are actual headlines from old newspapers. The play ends with the student waking to the sounds of the 1999 tornado, and seeing the aftermath of the tornado on the city, so that the play shows the significance of the student’s particular moment in history.

Some of the historical figures featured in the play are Dr. Robert T. Burt, Cave Johnson, Gustavus Henry, Brenda Runyon, Clarence Cameron White, Dorothy Dix, Ben Sory, Austin Peay, and Wilma Rudolph.

Many Clarksville people and organizations have been involved in the development of the play. Thornton and Bowie have been working together on the play for about three years, and some of the professional actors from the Roxy have given their feedback on the play throughout its development. Thornton has worked with Jill Hastings-Johnson from the Montgomery County Archives in order to include historical photographs of Clarksville within the play’s production.

Thornton was inspired to create the play after working as a writer on the “Becoming Clarksville” permanent exhibition in the Customs House Museum and Cultural Center. While learning about local history, Thornton was intrigued to learn that so many people had a significant impact on not only local culture and business but also national and even international success.

Thornton wanted local students to learn more about the history of our community, so she reached out to Clarksville Academy about their Challenge Based Learning (CBL) Program to see if they could help with the play. At Clarksville Academy, the History and Culture CBL group is led by advisors, Dr. Rebecca Beach and Mike Trent, who have worked closely with the students in the overall planning and organization of the play.

The Performing Arts Group is led by advisors, Debbie Hollis and Amanda Pitt, who have worked with the performers and students working on music and timing. Amanda Pitt added her talents as a writer and polished a version of the script to meet the needs of a student production.

Thornton hopes to continue “The Montgomery County Chronicles” in the future by featuring more local Clarksville-Montgomery County stories in the same format.

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