What do a reclusive caboose painter, a self-proclaimed Buddhist farmer and an anxious big-city journalist have in common? They make up part of the wacky, eccentric cast of “Gnaw Bone” — an original play written by third-year College student Jackson Wolford. After composing the piece for Drama Prof. Doug Grissom’s playwriting course, Wolford collaborated with members of the Virginia Players, a student liaison group with the Drama Department, to put on a staged reading, directed by University alumnus Daniel Prillaman and fourth-year College student Kate Tooley.
At the center of the story is John, an ambitious Chicago reporter who gets a little bit too friendly with his boss’ daughter. In a punishment supposedly worse than death, John is sent to Gnaw Bone, a run-down southern town named after an abandoned gas station. His stringent boss demands a journalistic piece about the town that will prove the writer deserves to be brought back to Chicago. Upon arriving to the town, John is frustrated by Gnaw Bone’s incorrigible residents and haphazard traditions — among them, a nonsensical farmer and a midsummer pumpkin run.
Nonetheless, John is determined to find a story and begins searching for T.R. Caboose — a town native best known for his unconventional hobby of painting train cabooses. At first, T.R. is hesitant to share his past, but he opens up when John promises to help him find the last caboose and track down Liza, T.R.’s childhood love interest. Throughout the play, the countryman’s past is revealed in a series of flashbacks, with each segment revealing more information about his adolescent experiences.
“One of [my inspirations] was my grandfather.” Wolford said. “[He] bears no resemblance to [T.R.], but he is a watercolor artist and one of the things he paints is barns … it sparked the idea of someone who paints obsolete objects as a way of exploring the past.”
On a deeper level, the play asks the audience to question the stereotypes we create based on a person’s origin. Many elements of the story draw a contrast between the city and country, and as the play develops characters ultimately defy common assumptions about these places and surprise the audience with plot-twisting revelations.
The story’s premise is only the start of a somewhat odd, but thoroughly amusing show. The characters are bizarre, but they are made wonderfully charismatic through humorous dialogue and well-executed jokes. Even in a small audience of about 15 people, laughter resonated throughout the theater as each actor offered high energy and enthusiastic performances.
“The actors took [the script] in wonderful ways,” Wolford said. “Some lines got taken in ways that I didn’t initially intend, but work perfectly … you have to leave room for actors to interpret and do their job.”
Wolford hopes to continue working on the script, making adjustments to the play’s tone and pacing. After the performance, he held a question and answer session and was open to recommendations from the actors and audience.
“There’s a surprising number of playwrights at U.Va. and it’s not really something that pops into your mind,” Wolford said. “I hope that there will be opportunities for more productions in the future.”
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