The Acceptance
Robert is a retired foreign correspondent and journalist who has returned to his hometown for the first time in fifty years. Mary is retired from the restaurant business, having gone blind late in life. It’s Robert’s first day at the upscale retirement center and it’s Mary’s last, as her son is taking her to live with him in Florida the next day. Over cups of spiked lemonade on the sun-drenched patio they come to the realization that they were high school sweethearts, on their way to matrimony. Through a series of flashbacks, some touching and some searing, they examine the decisions they made, and how those decisions affected the arc of their lives. It is a story of love, loss, longing, and life.
Productions
Behind The Scenes
What inspired you to write this play?
As I age, I look back on my life, its ups and downs, its successes and failures. And while certain aspects are unique to me, there are similar experiences for other members of my generation. This play is semiautobiographical, at least in Act I. The writing process was a roller coaster experience, sometimes exhilarating, sometimes borderline painful, but necessary to tell the whole story.
What's your favorite part or line in the play? Why?
Both “favorites” came from the Mary character. When speaking how she copes with her blindness, she says, “These eyes are shot… but these ears can hear a flea fart at fifty feet.” The second comes when she admits why she rushed into marriage with Lonnie. She says, “My daddy was right. I wasn’t in love; I was in heat."
Where did the characters come from? Are they based on people you know?
As I noted above, this play is semiautobiographical, as the first act pretty much tracks my own life, at least in the high school years. The journalism material pretty much tracked my ambition to be the next Dan Rather. The second act was more from people and incidents I knew or was aware of. And of course, Vietnam was the defining event of my generation. The characters in the Puyallup section are based on real people I knew, including the World War II pilot.
What did you try to achieve with this play?
To remind people that true love never dies, even when drastically delayed.
Do you have anything else you'd like to add?
The play is set, at least in Act I, in North Carolina, with many references to Chapel Hill and UNC. However, theater groups who would like to localize their productions are free to do so, with prior permission. (Don’t worry. I’m easy.) For example, a group in Illinois may want to substitute Northwestern for UNC. In Missouri, a switch to “Mizou” would be highly acceptable. The Journalism Schools at both institutions enjoy great reputations.