Jackson Free Press

Sept. 17, 2003

Those of us with the desire to integrate people through art need look no further than Port Gibson this weekend, when a diverse, intergenerational community will come together in Jo Carson's play "How the Deal Rocked Up." Commissioned and presented by Mississippi Cultural Crossroads, the play interweaves 50-plus years of local narratives collected by the organization as a part of the Claiborne County Oral History Project. Themes touched on—first-person accounts of shootings, racial tensions, land purchases under the New Deal—can be problematic to address anywhere, let alone in a town of 12,000 people in southern Mississippi.

Yet transplanted director and Yale graduate Maya Gurantz cited cast members' willingness to work together in order to tackle the difficult subject matter.

"There's a magic power to the fact that these are people's actual stories," she said. "A play like this is always going to be about healing in some way."

Native Californian Gurantz came to Mississippi after spending three years in New York. During the year-and-a-half spent off-and-on in Port Gibson, she has begun to think of MCC as a model rural arts organization—due to the dedication of its founding members, executive director Patty Crosby and husband Dave Crosby who started the group 25 years ago with a film series and a $2,500 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

When she first moved to Mississippi, Gurantz read a lot of "young, white Ivy Leaguer comes to the South" shock narratives, as she calls them. "Now, to be honest, my first impressions of Mississippi were often the same as how these writers tend to judge this region. Luckily, I had Patty and Dave to guide me past my first impressions into a type of deeper understanding."

That deeper understanding is one MCC and the Crosbys offer to anyone who is willing to learn. They seek out neglected local stories and illuminate them through art. That process is an integral part of helping the community to thrive, said Dave Crosby, adding, "It's not the poverty of the rural community that is driving people to the cities. It's the ignorance of the riches."

Patty Crosby has a talent for getting to the heart of the riches of Port Gibson and Claiborne County. Gurantz said. "Patty knows how to peel apart the many layers of history, social rules, economics, politics and human emotion that construct a cultural situation or moment or interaction. She really tries to come at a problem from the points of view of the people involved in it, with a thorough awareness of their given circumstances." Don't think any of what the Crosbys do is an easy task, though. Gurantz says, "The work they do here—all uphill for 25 years—it's amazing."

The premiere of "How the Deal Rocked Up," Sept. 19 at 7:30 p.m., marks the opening of MCC's gallery and theater space. The renovation was funded in part by a Building for the Arts grant. Come early for the opening-night gala. Tickets are $50. Additional performances will be on Sept. 21 and 28 at 3 p.m. and Sept. 27 at 7:30 p.m., with $10 adult tickets and $5 tickets for children under 18. Funding for the play comes from contributions from individuals, foundations and businesses, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Southern Arts Federation and the Mississippi Arts Commission, and the Claiborne County Board of Supervisors. For more information, including tickets, call MCC at 601-437-8905.