When the Navasota Theatre Alliance (NTA) opens its 2022-23 season on September 16, the Brazos Valley will get its first look at the work of Brenham playwright, Clare Johnson (née Broun, pronounced BROON).
“I’ve always been a freelance writer, doing marketing, writing professionally for the past 40 years,” Clare explains. But her writing took a different creative turn due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Johnson decided to take an online playwriting class during the COVID-19 quarantine. It was her first foray into writing a stage play. Encouraged by her instructor to write from of her life experiences, she drew inspiration from her own group of friends who have been together since middle school.
“‘The Supper Club’ is a total work of fiction, but it was inspired by a group of friends,” she says. “I’ve enjoyed some lifelong friendships all the way from grade school through today. So, I wrote out of my experience because I was inspired to pay tribute and homage to female friendships and the value they’ve had in my life.”
“It’s very personally meaningful, but it’s also very entertaining,” Clare says. “The thing I love about a group of women is that you can go from the shallow end to the deep end over a glass of wine. The dialogue has that cadence.”
Clare explains that the play wasn’t finished before the class ended, “but I already had the playwriting bug, so there was no way I wasn’t going to finish it,” she says. Clare found a playwriting tutor online, and they worked together remotely and virtually. “I would write the next scene or chapter, and he would make suggestions and provide encouragement,” she says. “He gave me so much wonderful theater insight.”
“He would call and say, ‘So, tell me what the girls are up to now!’” Clare says. “He challenged me when I needed to be challenged, and he was very respectful of my vision and my intent. He really helped me without taking over the project. He helped me make it stage-friendly and stage-worthy.”
The play went through what can only be called a serendipitous route to production. Last April, Clare was plant shopping at a Brenham nursery when she overheard a woman talking on the phone. The woman was NTA board member Jane Brewer, who was discussing show selection for NTA’s upcoming season with NTA Board President Joyce Yorek.
“After she got off the phone,” Clare recalls. “I timidly walked up and said, ‘I am so sorry for eavesdropping, but I wrote this play and I’d love for you to read it.’ This was on a Thursday, and on Sunday morning I got an email from Jane saying that NTA had read it and loved it and would like to produce it! It was just a God-wink kind of thing!”
Jane remembers the story exactly the same way. “Clare was such a delightful person that you couldn’t help but listen to her and like her,” she recalls. “I was really eager to read her play, and when I did, I just knew we had to put it on our season, so I got on the phone and started the process.”
NTA Board President Joyce Yorek calls the show “groundbreaking.” She says, “It’s not very often that we get to feature a local playwright in one of our main stage shows. The fact that a locally written play crossed our path and turned out to be one of the best plays we’ve read in a long time is something that has us grinning from ear to ear.”
Clare’s husband suggested that she send the script to the couple’s friend, Susan Blair, a Houston-based professional actress and dancer. “She’s a serious actress, and I was very nervous about sending the script to her,” Clare explains. “She called me and said, ‘Clare, I love it! I’d love to play the lead, and I have the perfect person to direct it — my husband, Jim Lawrence.’”
“I would’ve been delighted to direct the show no matter who wrote it,” says Jim, an accomplished actor and director, who also performs a small part in the show. “There’s a depth to the characters that makes it extremely compelling, and I was really excited about directing it.” Clare says it was thrilling even to hear the actors audition for the show. “It was the first time I’d ever heard any actors read my lines out loud!” she says.
The show, which takes place in the Deep South in 2018, is built on themes of acceptance, forgiveness, and love, which Clare says includes “unconditional acceptance of the people you already love, even with all their imperfections.”
“I call it a dramatic comedy,” she says. “The characters are totally fiction, but the plot really takes some dramatic twists and turns and forces these women who have been lifelong friends since middle school to be challenged in life-changing and profound ways.” According to Clare, the six friends must face social expectations and their own lifelong principles. “They’re forced to go through some scenarios that none of them ever expected,” she explains.
Jim, who is charged with bringing those scenarios to life, points out the challenges associated with a new script. “It’s literally never been done before,” he says. “The thought of bringing these very realistic characters to life in front of an audience is an experience that’s hard to put into words.”
Clare explains that a friend inspired the idea of the play, the show’s characters and plot are totally fictional. “I didn’t want anybody to be a ‘bad girl,’” she says. “These characters are wonderfully imperfect people. Life throws you curveballs, and this is where the play is true to life. It’s really a female-centric play, but it doesn’t exclude male insight and appreciation. It’s not just something for women.”
“I wanted everyone to leave feeling good with a smile on their face and joy in their heart,” she says. “It’s about how the women handle life and how they’re able to recalibrate their group and become better people.”
The season will also include NTA’s annual production of “Lanterns & Legends” in October at the Oakland Cemetery in Navasota, as well as summer camp productions for kids and teens. For more information, visit navasotatheatre.org.
About the Author
Mark Taylor is a full-time educator, a part-time writer, an award-winning graphic designer and marketing consultant, and a professional vocalist, actor, and stage director. His original musicals have been performed locally across the Brazos Valley, and his articles appear in a variety of publications. He and his wife, Beverly, reside on a 14-acre property in Grimes County where they keep bees and entertain their children and grandchildren.
Navasota Theatre Alliance presents The Supper Club
Written by Clare Broun Johnson
Directed by Jim Lawrence
Sept. 16, 17, 23, 24 and Oct. 1 at 7 p.m.
Sept. 18, 25 and Oct. 2 at 2 p.m.
Tickets: $10–$16
Sunny E. Furman Theatre — 104 W. Washington Ave., Navasota
navasotatheatre.org
