Gil Nelson aus dem US Bundesstaat Texas hat an einem Wettbewerb
teilgenommen, bei dem Bedingung war, dass das zu schreibende
Theaterstück nur 10 Minuten dauert, aber in sich abgeschlossen ist.
Er ist einer der Gewinner, deren Werke am 22. und 23. Mai 2009 in Beaumont,
Geburts- und Ruheort des Big Bopper, Jiles Perry Richardson, aufgeführt wurden.
Sein Werk beschreibt die letzten Stunden von Buddy Holly in Gesellschaft von
Tommy Allsup und Waylon Jennings.
Eingeladen zu dieser Veranstaltung ist der Sohn des Big Bopper.
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GIL NELSON |
I contacted Gil on the day he posted his info about the play
on John Beecher's Message Board.
But my first mail to Gil was initiated by a comment
about one of the pics I have online on Flickr.
Born in St. Louis, Mo. in the 1950s, Gil Nelson has spent most of his adult years
living in Sherman, Texas. His professional life began in 1968 at the age of 15
when he was hired part time at a local radio station. His "professional" duties
included emptying the trash, running errands for the DJs, and doing any other
"grunt" work that would endear him to management and staff. He was eventually
elevated to part-time DJ status and went on to a 25 year career as a
broadcaster/Music Programmer.
|  | | | T H E A T E R |
At the age of 30 Gil discovered live theater. On a lark he auditioned for The
Sherman Community Players' production of Woody Allen's "Play it Again, Sam".
It was his first time ever to "grace the boards" and he was given the lead roll
of Allen Felix. This was the beginning of a 25 year love affair with the stage.
|  | | | Some famous actors in "Play it again, Sam!" |
Gil Nelson stand schon in diversen Rollen auf den Brettern, die die Welt bedeuten:
During that time, Gil has performed in a variety of productions that include:
The Odd Couple - Felix
Gypsy - Tulsa
The Mousetrap - Christopher Wren
12 Angry Men - Juror #4
Chapter Two - Leo
The Fantasticks - The Boy
The Boys Next Door - Barry
Moonlight and Magnolias - Ben Hecht
Gil is currently employed as a Facilitator with Workforce Solutions Texoma
in Denison, Texas. He holds the status of Certified Workforce Expert.
Gil lives in Sherman with his wife, Frances. They have three grown children;
Stacey, Michael and Christina; two grandchildren, Kate and Gavin; one dog,
Bridgett;
and several cats too numerous to mention.
Er hat 3 erwachsende Kinder, 2 Enkelkinder, einen Hund und soviel Katzen,
dass das Nennen aller Namen etwas dauern könnte. So zeige ich hier nur 5.
(The Sherman/Denison area is located just a few miles from the Oklahoma
border, thus, we call the area “Texoma”, and 60 miles north of Dallas,
Texas.)
Gil hat mir das ganze Bühnenstück geschickt, damit ich es schon mal lesen kann,
bevor es aufgeführt wird. Mein Eindruck ist, dass die Unterhaltung der drei
Darsteller Buddy Holly, Tommy Allsup und Waylon Jennings sehr nahe an der
Wirklichkeit sein kann. Mit meinem Wissen über die letzten Stunden, die ich aus
verschiedenen Quellen und einem Zeitzeugen der Akteure im Surf Ballroom am
Abend des 2. Februar 1959 habe, kann ich das hier problemlos sagen.
At the urging of a friend, I recently accepted a challenge to write a ten
minute play. The Take A Bow Theatre Company in Beaumont, Texas
(Yes, the home of the J. P. “Big Bopper” Richardson) announced the
“Your Eight by Ten Goes Here” playwriting competition. The challenge
was to compose a dramatic stage presentation with all the depth and
character development of a full length play…in ten minutes running time.
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Buddy with fans (twins) during the WDP 1959. |
An idea came quickly; it was the 50th anniversary of the Winter Dance
Party tragedy and Beaumont, Texas, as mentioned above, has a vital
connection to this event.
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Characters and setting for the play. |
To make a long story short, my play was chosen as one of eight
winners. On May 22nd we will all gather for a weekend of activities
in Beaumont, including the staging of each play along with an
awards ceremony at the Art Studio, Inc:
Take A Bow Theatre Company, Beaumont, TX
http://www.myspace.com/takeabow99
The Art Studio, Inc.
http://www.artstudio.org/
Below, are some of my thoughts on Buddy Holly
along with events that contributed to the writing of this play:
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First page of the script - Die erste Seite des Drehbuchs |
Just like anyone who frequents this website, I consider myself a bonified
Buddy Holly enthusiast and I have been since I was a kid growing up in the
1960s. I can remember hearing, for the first time, songs like “Maybe Baby”,
“Words of Love”, and “True Love Ways” on the radio. All three compositions
were so drastically different from one another and in the case of the latter
two selections, so very sophisticated in arrangement and production. I had
to know more about someone who could create this kind of music. My years
as a radio broadcaster, music programmer and musician opened many doors
of “Holly-knowledge” to me.
I was a member of the Buddy Holly Memorial Society, headed by Bill Griggs
back in the 1970s, and spoke with him by phone on a couple of occasions.
One occasion was during the release of “The Buddy Holly Story” in 1978.
Bill was kind enough to secure an interview for me with original Cricket
Niki Sullivan.
|  | | | © B. Griggs NIKI SULLIVAN |
Niki was very upbeat and friendly during the interview. I had a great time
speaking with him and beyond anything that he knew about Buddy Holly,
I was just simply impressed with the winning personality of Niki Sullivan.
He was a wealth of information, spoke with great enthusiasm for his subject
and without a doubt, he admired Buddy greatly. The main thing that Niki
gave me during that interview was a priceless insight into the personality
of Buddy. Thirty years later as I sat down to write this play, it was Niki’s
description of Buddy that helped me re-create the character on the written
page. Along with Niki’s help, I also listened to existing audio interviews of
Holly’s relaxed speaking style and engaging Texas “drawl” (being from
Texas, I do know “thang” or two about that), taking into account that Holly
had been living in New York for a while, so a certain sophisticated manner
of speech was also beginning to settle in.
The end result is a Buddy Holly that I don’t think has ever been portrayed
before. Most any actor’s portrayal that I have ever seen of Buddy was
closer to Gary Busey. From the movies all the way to London’s West End,
actors seem to pattern their performances after Gary Busey rather than
the real thing.
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BUDDY HOLLY - WDP 1959 photo |
And goodness knows, the Winter Dance Party scenes have been anything
but accurate. I realize what I have written is only a ten minute
presentation,but to the best of my ability, I have endeavored to portray
the three characters, Buddy, Waylon Jennings and Tommy Allsup as
honestly as I know how.
I have even suffered through the 1966 Waylon Jennings
theatrical disaster of “Nashville Rebel” to try and get a good handle on
“young” Waylon. Again, it is a sparse presentation, but within the allowed
10 minutes, I have tried to follow a sequence of events that took place at
the Surf Ballroom on February 2nd, 1959 as seen through the eyes of these
three characters. ( Till ALL Times End is lovingly dedicated to the memory
of Niki Sullivan. Quite simply, without his help this work would be sorely
lacking. Thank you, Niki, for taking time to grant an interview to a 25 year
old rookie broadcaster some 30 years ago.)
THANX, GIL !
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