“The Cover of Life” by R.T. Robinson opens on the Wimberley Players stage April 29 and runs through May 22. Tood, Weetsie, and Sybil are all brides in rural Louisiana in 1943. Each is married to a Cliffert brother. The men are off to war, and a local news story about these young wives keeping the home fires burning intrigues Life Magazine editor Henry Luce. He decides that they belong on the cover and assigns reporter Kate Miller to the story. She has been covering the war in Europe. Though she views doing a “women’s piece” as a career setback, she accepts the assignment because it will be her first cover story. Kate spends a week with the Cliffert women. Her haughty urban attitude gives way to sympathy as she begins to understand them while coming face-to-face with her own powerlessness in a man’s world. Filled with charm and fun, ‘The Cover of Life” is a deeply affecting story about the struggle for self-worth.
Playing Tood is newcomer to the Players stage Lettie Dyer. Austin Strobel, also new to the Players, is playing Sybil. In the role of Weetsie is Meret Slover, recently seen in the Wimberley Players production of “Dracula: The Radio Play.” Karen Rudy who has been in many WP productions, most recently in “It’s a Wonderful Life: The Radio Play,” is playing the brides’ mother-in-law Aunt Ola. Reporter Kate Miller is played by Roxanne Strobel, returning to the WP stage immediately after playing Yvette in “Clue: On Stage.” In the role of the local reporter Addie May is Celeste Coburn, a WP regular last seen in the production “Death by Design.”
“The Cover of Life” premiered off-Broadway at The American Place Theatre in 1994. The play is based on the life of the real Tood, Ollie Marzelle Fife, who was the playwrights’ mother. In a 1993 interview for the Hartford Courant, Robinson said, “The secret of great Southern writers is being born into a family of interesting, passionate women.” Robinson, who grew up in Bastrop, Louisiana, not far from the town the play is set in, went on to say, “in my own mind I just went and sort of sat in the living room with these women back in 1943 and listened to them talk.”
Director Tracy Arnold says, “This is a play about taking responsibility in an ever-changing life. This is a play about women who march in step to the established parade. But as the play progresses, we watch as they step out of formation and march to their own beat.”
Rounding out the creative team is Carroll Dolezal as Scenic Designer, Lighting Design by William Peeler, Costume Design by Kathy Maldonado, and Hair and Makeup by Bridget Cook. “The Cover of Life” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com
The play runs on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from April 29 through May 22. Live and streaming tickets are available at wimberleyplayers.org or by phone at (512)847-0575.
