Project Description
Swamp Gravy is the name of an ongoing project and a series of community plays that come from it. The project began in 1992 and the Swamp Gravy production was performed in its final form in 1994. The Swamp Gravy project was conceived as a tool for cultural and economic revitalization. However, as director Richard Owen Geer came to know the community, the project became more about restoring a degraded local cultural identity and a process of dialogue and art-making that sought commonalities among people who had internalized historical conflicts and separations. The project has involved hundreds of local citizens of different races and from all economic classes as actors and other participants in theater-making. The company continues, performing two seasons a year and touring.

Civic Engagement/Dialogue Activities
Humanities scholars, including theater director Geer, trained citizens in techniques of oral history interviewing and transcribing. Stories of local residents were integrated into the final play. These elements reflect the play's authority and express its local knowledge. At times, Geer's outsider aesthetics clashed with the community's. He found he had to set aside his individual artistic preferences and become more sensitive to the signals of the actors. The intimate process of community members who do not usually interact with each other rehearsing and performing together in the safe environment created by the arts council contributed to dialogue in this small town. As a cumulative effect, Miller County's pride has deepened. The project has now been replicated in other communities with projects presently underway in five states.

Information Sources
Richard Owen Geer. "Out of Control in Colquitt: Swamp Gravy Makes Stone Soup" TDR (The Drama Review), Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press for Tisch School of the Arts, New York University, Summer 1996. Pearce, Michele. "Dining Out on Swamp Gravy," American Theatre. New York: Theater Communications Group, November 1995.