Swamp Gravy - Professional Shows

Professional Shows

December 3, 2003 saw the world premiere of Cotton Hall's first professional production,A Southern Christmas Carol with book, music and lyrics by Rob Lauer—who also directed the production.

A Southern Christmas Carol was staged with a cast of 10 professional actors, and received critical raves and was a box-office success. The theater staged it again in both 2004 and 2005. Due to the number of Holiday season tourists coming to Colquitt to see the show, sales at local shops and restaurants reached new highs for the months of November and December.

During the three years that the show was produced at Cotton Hall, a number of professional actor were featured who have since had success on Broadway and in the music industry. Character actor Peter Lewis created the role of 'Old Man Scrooge' in 2003 and repeated it in 2004. Singer and actor Rubin Singleton created the role of 'Tiny' in 2003 and repeated it in 2004 before landing a recording contract and performing with Beyoncé and Josh Groban. Karen Beyer, who also choreographed Swamp Gravy and Christmas Carol, created the role of 'Missionary Lady' before going on to appear as a regular in the Lifetime Channel's series Army Wives. Actress Marissa McGowen created the role of 'Fan' before going on to star in the Broadway revival of "A Little Night Music." Andrew Frace played 'the Ghost of Christmas Past' in 2004 and went on to appear in the nation tour of Disney's The Lion King and then star in the Las Vegas production of the Tony Awarding winning Best music of 2005, "Jersey Boys." Michael Mahany played the role of 'the Ghost of Christmas Past' in 2005 and then went on appear in the original Off Broadway production of "Spring Awakening" and as the male lead in Disney's High School On Stage, and in the film Sex In the City 2.Matt Gibson, who played Nephew Fred and Eb in the 2005 production, appeared with Patti LePone in the Tony Award-winning 2008 Broadway revival of "Gypsy."

In the summer of 2004, Rob Lauer directed CMAC's second professional production Smoke on the Mountain The show featured Edmund Bagnell, who went on to star in the role of Toby opposite Judy Kaye in the first national tour of the 2005 Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd.

In the summer of 2005, Rob Lauer wrote, designed and directed a new dramatization of Huckleberry Finn with music by Peter Lewis, and starring Edmung Bagnell.

In 2006, after Rob Lauer's departure as Artistic Director, Richard Geer, of Community Performance Inc. went on to direct two more professional productions Gospel of the Rock and Swamp Gravy Songbook. These plays were penned by Jules Corriere.

Gospel of the Rock told the story of the Anglin brothers- two of the only men ever thought to have escaped Alcatraz prison. Clarence and J.W. Anglin were good boys who just managed to find trouble. After escaping several smaller jails, and robbing an Alabama bank with a water gun, the brothers were sentenced to time in Alcatraz. Gospel of the Rock featured a cast of both locals and professional actors from Georgia and South Carolina. Three of the five cast members were Colquitt natives- one a state patrol man, one a farmer, and the other—a teacher.

Swamp Gravy Songbook told a story of two families struggling to survive in a drought plagued area of farmland. The families, one black and one white, are forced to work together in order to live. This script was built around the catalog of songs written over the years from Swamp Gravy. The show featured mainly local actors.

In place of Southern Christmas Carol, December 2006 saw the premiere of Cotton Hall Christmas, another show written by Corriere. Cotton Hall Christmas followed a format similar to Swamp Gravy, putting stories from the community together to make the play.