Heart and roots: How a theater performance in the Flint Hills told the story of a Kansas community

The Kansas Reflector welcomes opinion pieces from writers who share our goal of widening the conversation about how public policies affect the day-to-day lives of people throughout our state. Jenny Towns is an artist, educator and communications professional. She is a school choir director and is pursuing her master’s degree in music education at Kansas State University.

Earlier this year, Beth Wynstra and Mary Pinard — professors at Babson College in Boston — were invited to write and direct a play at The Volland Store in Alma. 

“Heart/Roots: Wabaunsee County” premiered in June 2022, the first-of-its-kind performance in The Volland Store’s renovated “Theatre at the Ruin” outdoor space on the grounds of the Store.

Last year, Wynstra and Pinard gathered stories from Wabaunsee County residents representing a cross-section of the county across time, region and backgrounds. This was the source material for “Heart/Roots: Wabaunsee County.” The play was structured as a series of monologues and scenes that told the story of The Volland Store, the communities surrounding it and the people who lived there. It was performed entirely by residents of the Flint Hills and the surrounding areas.

I was one of those actors.

As summer turned to fall, I stayed in touch with the team of artists I had met and worked with at Volland, and I thought often of my new friends Beth and Mary, now home in Boston. This work undoubtedly had great meaning to all of us who live here in Kansas, but I wondered how Beth and Mary were reflecting on the experience.

What did they learn about the Sunflower State and its people in creating this piece of art with us? How does theater work to tell stories — both universal and specific — that unlock core truths about a place?

I spoke with both of them about this.

“Theater is, at its core, collaborative and dynamic: perfect coordinates for bringing to life the stories of a county like Wabaunsee,” Mary Pinard said. “It allows for a range of stories — and storytelling modes (monologue, dialogue, scene, sonnet) — and by its use of elements of theatrical spectacle, transforms and preserves.

“That this production took place in the restored ruin of the original family home of Otto and Mabel Kratzer, key ancestors of The Volland Store and the importance of community and art in the area, highlights how theater continues to be a cultural, historical and aesthetic wellspring.”

Beth Wynstra reflected on the personal nature of the stories told in the piece.

“We were struck, both in the rehearsal process with actors and then during the production with our audiences, how the stories we were telling resonated with so many individuals,” she said. “The script, which is both utterly specific and beautifully universal, and the production in which live bodies recited, reenacted, and retraced the history and splendor of Wabaunsee County, offered an artistic experience where, we believe, many people could find a footing, a connection.”

As an actor on that outdoor stage in the oppressive June heat (a particularly hot June, we learned) I can attest that the elements were not always in our favor.

Beth noted this: “I think the thing that surprised me the most was the unflappability of the cast and crew. Nothing (the heat, the bugs, the three trains during closing night) could shake them.”

Mary described what she was most struck by in the Kansans she met and worked with: “Wit, steadfastness, generosity, attentiveness, resilience, thrift, storytelling prowess.”

Even when it was very, very hot.

The Volland Store itself is a magnet for artists — drawn there from places near and far — to create, display, engage, and perform. While Mary had already spent a good deal of time there in residence as a poet, this was Beth’s first time working at Volland.

“While I’ve visited The Volland Store numerous times over the last few years and been in residence there as a poet a couple of times, I found the experience of writing a play about it and the surrounding community — and seeing it come to life under the extraordinary direction of Beth — to be dynamic in new ways,” Mary said.

“The performance of the play in the ruin and on the grounds of the store made real the essential connection between these two spaces, but it also featured the possibilities it holds for future productions, theatrical and otherwise,” she said.

“For instance, in the course of planning for a possible rain location for our June production, Beth and I realized that the store could serve as a black box theater space with all kinds of flexibility and experimentation. I’m quite sure that as its reputation for fine productions of small-scale theater projects grows, The Volland Store (and its 21st-century proprietors Patty and Jerry Reece) will continue to thrive as/at the heart of a vital and engaged community.”

Through its opinion section, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.