REVIEW: Inspiring Two-Person Black Box Play Reflects Glories of America
Six days after America celebrated the 250th anniversary of its founding on July 4, The Black Box Theatre in downtown Moline honored the country again in a deeply meaningful way again, opening the area premiere of “Grandma Gatewood Took a Walk,” by Catherine Bush.
In its 10th season, the BBT again presents a Quad Cities premiere (as it did last month with “The Shark is Broken”), and does what it does best – offering a contemporary play or musical (often not well-known) with such intelligence, emotion and expert performance and stunning style that you are different, better person by the end of the show than you were at the start.
The inspiring two-actor Catherine Bush play – starring Richmond Hill veterans Jackie Stiles and James Driscoll, who were impressive as leads in 2013’s “Death of a Salesman” at the Geneseo Barn Theatre) – is a fitting, timely hymn to the natural glories of our nation. It’s not only intensely dramatic, and keeps us on the edge of our seats throughout, but “Grandma Gatewood” tells the amazing true story of Emma Gatewood (1887-1973).
In 1955, at the age of 67, Gatewood (an Ohio native) told her 11 children she was “going for a walk” and set out with her duffel bag, shower curtain (to keep dry) and a pair of Keds sneakers to walk the Appalachian Trail. Two thousand one hundred ninety miles (and seven pairs of shoes) later, she became the first woman to solo hike 14 states from Georgia to the top of Mt. Katahdin in Maine and she is credited with saving the Appalachian Trail. After an aborted first attempt in 1954, Gatewood completed her third hike of the A.T., this time in sections, in 1964 at age 76, a grandmother of 26, making her the first person to complete the trail three times. She was also credited with being the oldest female thru-hiker by the Appalachian Trail Conference.
Jim Driscoll plays many roles in the new play, based on a true story, at Black Box Theatre.
Skiles – an often entertaining, dependable actor who’s been in over 40 QC productions in the past 30 years – is making her incredible BBT debut as the determined, irascible, indomitable Emma, who narrates the epic, life-altering journey, talking directly to the 60-person audience, never leaving the stage. Driscoll – who also has a wide-ranging, spectacular acting resume, including as the iconic Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mocking bird” at Black Box – rises to his own jaw-dropping challenge, playing several characters integral to Emma’s story.
As the show (sensitively directed by BBT artistic director and co-founder Lora Adams) opens, we see the unpretentious, matter-of-fact Skiles smiling as the stands atop the 5,268-foot Mount Katahdin in Maine, the northern end of the A.T. on Sept. 25, 1955, when she first finished her 146-day hike. Much of the play asks why she took on the adventure, and she usually responds, “I thought it would be a lark.”
Emma certainly needed an escape, in part to flee years of interminable abuse (both physical and emotional) she endured from her husband P.C., but we see an early 1954 scene that shows how she fell in love with limitless beauty of the A.T. by reading a 1949 feature about it in National Geographic.
Jackie Skiles stars in “Grandma Gatewood Took a Walk,” at Black Box Theatre, Moline.
We learn through Driscoll of Emma’s stern, demanding father (who had 15 kids), a Union veteran of the Civil War and later whiskey maker. She only attended school through 8th grade and we see a reenactment of when her husband first proposed marriage, and then three months later he beat her for the first time, while she was pregnant, calling Emma “a big, fat nothing.”
A magical moment in the new production is during her first trail attempt (beginning in Maine and heading south to Georgia), where Skiles sits along a creek, backed by an immense blanket of stars (little blue and white lights spread across the theater backdrop), speaking an imaginary conversation with Driscoll as her dad. The play often shows Emma talking with her father or husband during her journey.
In the 1954 walk, Emma got lost and hungry, and tells us she’s not afraid of dying but more afraid of quitting. After Driscoll as a park ranger gives her nuts and water, he says the trail is not a joke, and recommends she return home, which she reluctantly does.
Jackie Skiles plays the title role in “Grandma Gatewood Took a Walk,” at Black Box Theatre, Moline, through July 18.
The play’s second half recounts the challenges and people she meets along her 1955 hike through 14 states, and Driscoll does a tremendous job reflecting the variety of characters (occasionally making quick unseen jaunts back and forth to opposite sides of the stage), including as reporters who want to tell Emma’s tale. A humorous one is a young, female Sports Illustrated reporter, where Jim gets to playfully sway his hips, with a flower in “her” hat.
Emma survives a storm that causes flooding, and she’s helped across a creek by two men, and we learn one of her main motivations for completing the A.T., from a 1939 vicious beating, which is recounted by both characters, and Emma had teeth broken as her husband screamed hateful insults. She finally divorced him in 1941, often telling people on the A.T. that he was dead.
The play is apparently very faithful to what really happened to Gatewood, including she relays the words to the famous first verse of “America the Beautiful” at her triumphant trail’s end. Spoken by Skiles at the show’s close, with gentle, pre-recorded musical accompaniment, it’s a thrilling, awe-inspiring scene.
Jackie Skiles and Jim Driscoll are the only actors in the new play at Black Box Theatre, Moline, which runs through July 18.
Adams also designed the show, with light design by Jennifer Kingry (another RHP veteran) and sound by Doug Kutzli.
“In keeping with our mission and history we are thrilled to be the third theatre in the United States to present this story of a most remarkable woman,” Adams said recently. “The script was brought to my attention by actress, hiker and outdoor enthusiast Autumn O’Ryan. She was originally scheduled to play Emma, but a medical situation precluded her ability to be in the show and Jackie stepped in beautifully,” Adams said.
The work made its debut in 2023 at the Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights as a reading, followed by a full-length production debuting at Barter Theatre in Virginia on May 12, 2024.
The real Emma Gatewood (1887-1973) on the Appalachian Trail.
The new Moline production is sponsored by The Joyce & Tony Singh Family Foundation. Singh (a prominent arts supporter in the QC) is also an avid hiker. In 1988, Tony set out to hike the A.T., and it took him 23 years of section-hiking to complete. In 2013, he solo-hiked 240 miles through the California wilderness on the John Muir trail, which spans from Yosemite to Mount Whitney — the highest point in the continental United States.
“Grandma Gatewood Took a Walk” is not only a breathtaking tribute to America through its natural wonders, but also reflecting the unquenchable spirit of individualism – how one person declared her own independence, overcame so many obstacles, and proved her strength, resilience, and admirable character.
The new BBT production runs through July 18, including this Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., at 1623 5th Ave., Moline. Tickets are $18 and available at the door or online at theblackboxtheatre.com.
James Driscoll in “Grandma Gatewood Took a Walk,” at Black Box Theatre, Moline.
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