On Thursday, Nov. 15, Navarro College Department of Theatre presented “Hope in Hemphill” during the Texas IV Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival at Texas A&M University-Commerce.
“Hope in Hemphill” is an original piece written and directed by Navarro College’s own Shellie O’Neal.
The action of the play occurs in Cook’s Dry Goods Store in the East Texas town of Hemphill. The timeperiod is during World War II. When the play opens we meet the Cook family and Ordrey, a young man planning to marry into the Cook family. We then hear on the radio that the Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor and that America is entering the war. The young men of the community decide to enlist in the Marines and go fight against the tyrant. This leaves the women of the family home, hearing nothing of the war except through the radio and letters from the Marines.
In one letter we learn that the Cook’s son, Eldon was killed in action. This is depicted by a symbolic change of a red star to a gold star on the Cook’s Dry Goods Stores front door. In the end, the war is over and Ordrey has returned home.
We see that he and his new wife have a baby and that the Cooks are going to rent out empty space in the back of the store for him to run his barber shop. The play ends with the family posing for a picture and Mrs. Cook telling everyone to smile including Eldon, the Marine lost over seas.
This play touched closely to my heart being that I am a former Marine and my grandfather was a Marine in World War II. I loved the patriotism and general Marine Corps. Pride this play exerted. With the war still going on in Iraq and Veteran’s day not but a few weeks ago it came at perfect timing.
The scenes where letters were being read by the girls were enjoyable. You felt the fear and concerns the young men were going through and could see that they constantly were thinking of their loved ones back home. This is a common feeling to most soldiers and Marines of all our foreign wars. Though they miss home the men fight for the brothers they have next to them.
A letter from Ordrey states that he feels he is inhumane and are violating Christian values for killing so many people. These are all issues that every soldier has gone through, while their loved ones sit at home with their own imagination being their worst enemy.
However, other aspects could have been executed better. The costumes were not thorough. Many pieces of clothing were not in period and ruined the 1940s’ style the director was going for. Much of the uniform pieces worn by the Marines were not accurate; black combat boots and Dockers, instead of trousers are just some examples. The scene changes were long and sometimes seemed out of place due to lighting errors.
I really was disappointed in the general dry delivery of the dialogue from the actors. I wanted to see more emotion and true concern from these characters. Instead, I was often bored, losing interest at many points.
Visually, the designer made you feel as if you were looking into a store in the 1940s. Everything from the aisles of clothing to the cash register was accurate and thoughtful, paying attention to the finest detail.
This show brought back some old Marine Pride and patriotism in me that had been stored away.
Semper Fi!