About the Play..............................

'Til THE MIDNIGHT HOUR was born of the relationship between the Carver Cultural Center and Junebug Productions that started in 1981. Grant Spradling, a minister with whom I'd worked at the United Church of Christ, asked me to help program a conference on Art, Architecture and Religion that was held in San Antonio. That's when I met Jo Long and discovered the Carver Center. I'd just completed work on Vol. I of the Junebug plays. Jo booked it for presentation in San Antonio the next season beginning a relationship that has grown richer over the years. Since then the Carver Center has presented the entire repertory of Junebug Productions. Four years ago I proposed that we work together in the production of the current play, Jo agreed and the work began.

I already had several images, ideas and some stories about Bo Willie Boudreaux, the central character in the play. When we first meet Bo Willie as a young man, he's already a pretty serious scoundrel. He was trying to sell Junebug a battery that we later find out he'd stolen from Junebug in the first place. He goes downhill from there. I also had some material about similar kinds of villains. The question that I wanted to look at was what would it take to save Bo Willie? How far would he and people like him have to go before we'd have to say he's irredeemable? When does the eleventh hour turn to midnight?

Director/dramaturge Steve Kent and I knew that Junebug lives in the Treme section of New Orleans and that the primary setting for this play would be in San Antonio. (We always set the play in the place where the piece is created.) We had everything we needed to get started. After you see 'Til The Midnight Hour you'll be able to tell us what stories, ideas, memories, and questions the child that came of the joyous union between Junebug Productions and the Carver Cultural Center stirs in you. I hope you enjoy!