By Sherry Landrum (co-author and director)
I’m seven years old and a brownie-scout. My mom is the scout leader, and her assistant is Mamie Goforth. The Goforths had recently moved from their farm in Kentucky to Chattanooga. The farm wasn’t paying the bills so their father had to take a job on the railroad. My mom, Mamie Goforth, myself, and the rest of the Brownie troupe are on our way to that farm in Kentucky for a camping trip. We arrive late at night and enter through the farm gate into a pasture of sleeping cows. One of the cows has to be moved so that our car can go through. In that moment was born the setting for That Other Woman’s Child.
Fast forward a few years later. I’m fourteen, a sophomore at Brainerd High School in Chattanooga. I walk up to some guy in the lunch line and say, “Hey lover boy, can I get in line?” (Why I used the term “lover boy”, which up until that time I didn’t even know was in my vocabulary, I really couldn’t tell you.) That guy was
George Clinton. George and I became close friends, performed in all the high school musicals together, ran the drama club, were in a band called “The Velveteens,” and co-wrote the book, lyrics and music for That Other Woman’s Child.
I think George and I always felt like “that other woman’s children” as we grew up in the Appalachian south. Anyone in the arts, particularly theater, was immediately suspect by the very religious. We heard fire and brimstone sermons from very charismatic and narcissistic preachers. From the memory of those preachers was born Matthew Mark Knob, the father in That Other Woman’s Child who wants to be a preacher but doesn’t have a church, so he insists that the family come to church in the kitchen every Sunday to have their sins divined by a fire poker, exorcised, and dumped into the family cow. Remember how Jesus put the sins into a pig?
Granny Loomis is the matriarch in our story – the one who holds everyone hostage with guilt and shame. Her archetype can be found in all cultures. My own was my French grandmother called Maman. I heard stories from my mother of how she ruled the family with an iron will. Mothers have a peculiar ability to create emotional ties that bind so tight they can choke the life out of everyone. Granny’s story is simple. She was the farmer’s daughter. One day a traveling salesman came, knocked her off her feet, got her pregnant, married her, stayed for a while, and then ran off with “that other woman.” And she’s still pissed! So now the family must stick together at all costs, or Granny, whose wounds are deep, just might go over the edge.
Then the family hears what they’ve been dreading for years. That other woman’s child is coming to claim her rights to the farm. And our musical begins.
That Other Woman’s Child is a story about family, fear, and freedom. Daily Variety called it “…a winner.” The Los Angeles Times wrote that the show “…successfully weds country music with the American musical theatre.” That Other Woman’s Child is a foot-stomping, bluegrass musical for the whole family.
37 Arts, Theatre C, 450 West 37th St. Shows are Monday 9/29 at 8, Tuesday 9/30 at 1, Wednesday 10/1 at 5, Friday 10/3 at 9, Saturday 10/4 at 5, Sunday 10/5 at 1) Log onto www.nymf.org for tickets.
