For my 50th birthday, my friend and long-time collaborator Lisa Neely, brought me to Austin to do a workshop and reading of my new play 1999 with her company 3rd Course: Theatre. Collaboration with friends was the best she could’ve given. MAC Arts also supported our endeavor with a generous grant which helped provide a budget for food, copies, and dramaturgical support. We’re so lucky in Greenville to have a thriving arts community, in large part because of MAC Arts’ generous funding.
It was only a 4 day process, but we probably crammed in 10 days’ worth of work in that time. Lisa and I are both intense individuals and together we’re a wrecking ball of productivity. I’m not sure it’s entirely a good thing! But we both love the process.
I’m back in Greenville now continuing to revise based on the input from my collaborators and the audience. My play grew a lot in those 4 days of workshop and it continues to get stronger. It would not be what it is without the ways each person in the room made the voice of the play much richer.
A note of gratitude to 3rd Course: Theatre, Dr. Lisa Neely (director), and Dr. Leslie Dovale (dramaturg). These two women are creative and intellectual powerhouses. I can say unequivocally that the play is smarter because of them. Also, I’m so grateful to our wonderful cast – the brilliant Leslie (who played the lead in addition to being my dramaturg), the dazzling Macie O’Connor, and the superb Ruth Foulkrod. They gave a beautiful reading for our audience – and they were so helpful in the workshop process by offering insights and suggestions that made their way into the script.
My hope now is that a theatre company or university will help me get the play out to audiences. Unfortunately, 3rd Course isn’t in the position to take my plays to full production. And so like many playwrights, I wait and hope for production. I feel even more urgency to get this play in front of audiences because the subject is something others are writing about – the films of ‘99. Recent articles in the New York Times and Rolling Stonehave eloquently remembered this remarkable year of film history. This play is a love-song to these films, as well as a reckoning about how to view them in today’s context, in light of the revelations about sexual assaults and the changing feminist movement.
As I wait for someone to produce 1999 in the reality of seismic economic challenges in the theatre, I can look back on the process and feel proud of the work five women in a room created.
Lisa Neely, Macie O’Connor, Leslie Dovale, Ruth Foulkrod, Stacey Campbell
Here are some of the written reviews that came after the reading by audience members and my collaborators:
“1999 richly engages heart and mind - with surprising humor amid razor sharp cultural analysis, the play reveals to us our longings, our shortcomings, and the inheritance we've given to the next generation. Each character elicits sympathy, anger, and an "o ****, that's me." To borrow a beautiful image from the play, in that space between the theatre and my car, I felt the deep ache for what is and what could have been.” (Lisa Neely)
“Stacey Isom Campbell’s masterful drama features three fascinating, complex and strong women (Emma, Teresa and Naomi) and a compelling flashback structure that drew me into its unfolding, character-driven story. Alternately aching, funny and incisive, 1999 confronts painful paradoxes of the vibrant 1990s indie film scene. How can we celebrate the creative achievements of an era dominated by powerful sexual predators who irrevocably harmed the promising futures of so many? By staging the joyful process of artistic collaboration between two gifted young filmmakers, 1999 haunts us with an image of hope and unanswerable questions: In the corrupt and exploitative context of 1990s Hollywood, what amazing films didn’t get made? And how do the choices and compromises we make to survive in a broken system reverberate through generations? As long as humans face our past, current or future “problematic” moments, these complex questions will continue to resonate.” (Leslie Dovale)
“From the very first read through of this play, these characters got underneath my skin. Each one made me question what I would have done in their shoes. Every time I've had a chance to play Teresa, she has deeply affected me. Her words, experiences and heartbreak will forever resonate inside of me. I am truly a different actor and person because of the story this play weaves as a narrative that everyone must one day confront, especially in the times in which we now live.” (Macie Connor)
“A #metoo play that’s as complex as its subject matter AND enjoyable to watch. “1999” avoids familiar #metoo beats—no cheap shots here. Instead Isom’s winsome work invites us to connect with familiar topics in unfamiliar ways. With multiple competing perspectives and grounded characters, there’s a genuine honesty on offer. Broad audiences will likely engage with, rather than simply resist, the heartbreaking challenges that emerge.” (Hannah Wong)
