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Theate
COLQUITT,
"It scared
me real bad," she said. "I saw those big 'ol pop eyes."
A neighbor
killed the gator with a couple of ax blows to the head, and Rosebrough
served alligator tail to her 10 children in their log cabin that evening.
"Alligator
meat tastes like chicken," said Rosebrough, 58. "It ain't nothing but good
'ol lean meat."
After nearly
30 years, she can chuckle about her brush with the fearsome creature. Now,
her story will be one of several real-life tales featured in the next installment
of Swamp Gravy, a community theater production that celebrates the folklore
of southwest
All the
Swamp Gravy plays are based on stories gathered from area residents such
as Rosebrough, and all feature volunteer actors from the community.
When the
Colquitt-Miller County Arts Council launched Swamp Gravy in 1992 with a
$700 grant from the Georgia Council for the Arts, locals were looking for
a way to save their town from the economic decline that has left many rural
communities with abandoned buildings, overgrown yards and few meaningful
jobs.
They found
it through their unique plays and related cultural activities, which draw
about 40,000 people to the town of 2,000 each year, some driving for more
than five hours to attend. The effort has since won national acclaim and
turned Colquitt into a model for success in the growing field of cultural
tourism - appealing to travelers who want to experience the art, heritage
and character of a place.
The local
arts council's budget has rapidly grown from $2,000 in 1992 to $2.2 million.
It now provides 60 full or part-time jobs and the economic impact of the
Swamp Gravy plays alone is estimated at $2 million per year, making it
one of the county's top industries.
"Tourism
is
Those two
are Joy Jinks and Karen Kimbrel, longtime residents who helped launch Swamp
Gravy.
"We were
like all the small towns in
They considered
historical plays, but they couldn't find any truly significant events in
the county's past. So they settled on plays based on oral histories.
"All of
a sudden, we had these tour buses," Jinks said. "We found out that people
are inspired when people tell their stories and their ordinary lives are
validated."
Colquitt
is 50 miles from the nearest interstate highway, so travelers have to have
a strong motivation to visit. They travel over seemingly endless two-lane
highways, past pine forests and cotton and peanut fields, into the heart
of rural southwestern
Organizers
initially hoped to attract senior citizens and church groups from a 90-mile
radius. Now the plays and related cultural activities held throughout the
year attract tens of thousands of fans, most from within a 400-mile radius
that extends from north of
"We went
from hopelessness to hopefulness," Kimbrel said. "When you shift a whole
community's mind-set that way, the sky's the limit."
The Swamp
Gravy cast has even performed at the
The Arts
Council has acquired an old cotton warehouse and converted it into a theater
and museum packed with antique furniture, farm implements and military
memorabilia donated by residents.
The Council
also runs an after-school arts and enrichment program for children. It
has purchased and refurbished a historic downtown inn and has opened a
store on the town's central square featuring arts, crafts and antiques.
It rents loft apartments above the store and rents two corrugated-steel
grain bins transformed into innovative homes.
"It has
made a very visible economic impact, but also it has crossed lines that
we would have never crossed - race, gender, age and economic status," said
museum director Charlotte Phillips. "We have been able to come together
as a community to make Colquitt a better place."
Through
an arts council mural project, the walls of some downtown buildings and
the high school are covered with paintings depicting 11 of the Swamp Gravy
stories, such as a father's search for his son missing in action during
World War II. In 2010, the small town will host a gathering of mural enthusiasts
from around the world.
Since the
launch of Swamp Gravy, 14 businesses have opened on the town square, including
an Internet cafe and a spa that offers yoga classes - businesses not typically
found in farm towns.
Because
of Colquitt's success, other communities are turning to the town for tips
on starting similar cultural programs. Jinks and Kimbrel have spoken to
groups in 10 states and
"It's what
small communities have to do, especially in the South," Kimbrel said. "We
do have a culture and we all have stories. It's been an amazing journey
and we are so thankful that we've survived and we're all still speaking
to each other."
The latest
installment of Swamp Gravy plays, titled "Visiting Hours," opens Oct. 5
and will run for a month with performances each Thursday, Friday and Saturday
evenings and a Saturday matinee.
Swamp Gravy: http://www.swampgravy.com/
