Next week, a church in Haddonfield will be hosting a historical performance benefiting the nonprofit organization Feed My Starving Children.
Sponsored by the Haddonfield Council of Churches, local historical actors Susan Chase and Rick Bonnette will blend history and fiction in an original play they call “The Stowics.” “The Stowics,” a two-act play, features two of America’s most consequential authors, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain. Performances will be on Friday, April 22 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, April 23 at 7 p.m., and ticket sales will benefit Feed My Starving Children.
“Make sure to have dinner. Haddonfield has so many wonderful (restaurants), then come out to the show. It’s for a great cause and you couldn’t have more fun sitting down,” Bonnette said.
Bonnette approached Grace Church wanting to do this play, having done two previous plays at the church in the past. He has written three plays that were performed around Mark Twain, and this was the third in the trilogy.
It was agreed that Bonnette could perform his third and final play with sponsorship by the Haddonfield Council of Churches.
His previous plays had benefitted the church and the Haddonfield Public Library, and per the council’s wishes, this play will benefit Feed My Starving Children, a non-profit Christian organization committed to feeding God’s children in body and spirit. Many of Haddonfield’s churches have made a commitment over the years to help this organization.
“The Stowics” is a two-act play featuring Twain and Stowe in Connecticut in 1884 where they are neighbors. A few years earlier, Twain began his work on the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” but he became disenchanted with his work and abandoned it. By 1884, his opinion about the book had changed little, but his finances had, so he took to writing it again. “The Stowics” suggests that redemption of Twain’s work came from his friend and neighbor Stowe.
Abraham Lincoln is purported to have addressed Stowe as “the little lady that started this great (civil) war.” Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was banned in libraries across America. This performance will look deeper into the lives of these authors, as well as the parts they played in history.
“There is a lot going on in this, and hopefully that’s the sense people will get from the interaction,” Bonnette said.
A key point in the play is in 1884. While at the peak of her fame, it became evident to Stowe’s family and friends that her “quirky” behavior was signaling a serious decline in her cognitive powers. It is believed that Stowe was suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia. Bonnette said this will play a part in “The Stowics,” and hopes it will bring awareness of the disease.
“I hope people will be a little more understanding of those with dementia or Alzheimer’s and get a better sense of Mark Twain as not the caricature that people see him. There is a depth and purpose to his writing,” Bonnette said.
Bonnette hopes people come to help this good cause, but also to have an enjoyable, but thoughtful night.
“If for no other reason than to support Feed My Starving Children, if they need an evening where they ponder and laugh a little bit, and maybe get a little tear in their eye, that would be another good reason to come out,” Bonnette said.
Tickets are $20 and are available through local churches, at the door and at marktwainstravelingtheatre.com. Also, if you can answer the question, what are “Beecher Bibles?” you may qualify for a discount on the price of admission.
The play will commence at Grace Church in Haddonfield’s Grand Performance Hall, 19 Kings Highway East.
Bonnette has also committed to performing “The Stowics” at the historic Christ Church in Philadelphia on May 25 and 26 for the Alzheimer’s Association of Delaware Valley.
To learn more or for questions, visit marktwainstravelingtheatre.com.
