The Legend of Bonny Anne by Chandler Patton
The Legend of Bonny Anne is an amazing script still undergoing changes by playwright Chandler Patton and a score by Steven Schmidt. This production was an independent project in association with Southern Oregon University (Ashland, Oregon, USA) June of 2018, performed in their film studio at the Digital Media Center which acted as a black box for us. With very little funding and a performance space with a permanent orange scaffold, our set and aesthetic design was characterised by what we were forced with rather than what was at our disposal. The concrete floor of the film studio paired with bright orange industrial scaffold mixed the old with the new compared to our period costumes (most of which came from our personal costume chests). The script itself is aware of the story, and asks what really is "Truth? with a capital T?". However the Story lives only Because it is Told, and despite the constructions of our industrial set and space, the truth in our rogue production--set in motion by sheer determination, mirroring the lives of what could have been our pirate selves (Anne Bonny was only 19 when she was on trial for piracy)-- pushed us forward in bringing this tale to life.
The author, who traces her lineage to an offshoot of Anne Bonny's family tree, attended the performances and regaled our cast with the inside scoop on both the true history (somewhat fictionalised for the play) and her own relationship to it. We are honored to be one of the initial productions of this play.