America 250: ‘1776’ Brings Independence to Life in Charleston

If you feel old, don’t worry – the country’s got you beat. On July 4, America will hit the big 250, and amid all of the events celebrating the huge milestone, Charleston Light Opera Guild is presenting 1776, a musical about the country’s road to independence two and a half centuries ago.

As you’ll see in CLOG’s production of 1776, John Adams did not give up, being the strongest voice in support of independence – something we are celebrating a bit more this year for America’s 250th birthday.

“David McCullough, the historian, said that John Adams was the mouth of the Declaration of Independence,” Bryan Archer said. “Whereas Thomas Jefferson was the author, John Adams was the mouth.”

Archer portrays John Adams in CLOG’s production.

“It helps the character development quite a bit since it is a historical figure,” he said. “There are hours and hours and hours of documentaries that you can watch, books that you can read, mini-series that you can watch and get different aspects of his life and how life was for him and how difficult he had it back in 1776.”

The saying, “Behind every successful man is a woman” proves to be true for Adams, as his wife Abigail’s counsel played a pivotal role in his decision-making and motivation.

Elaina Smith is the actress bringing Mrs. Adams to life at the Guild.

“It was really exciting to dive into Abigail’s background,” Smith said. “She obviously was not a member of Congress, but she did play a very influential part in John’s decisions politically. He was always coming to her for advice with things and she did a lot for women’s rights at the time. She was really fighting for educational rights for women, women’s rights to property. There was a lot that a lot of people don’t know about her. They’re almost a visualization of their letters back and forth at the time because she was back home in Massachusetts taking care of the kids and the farm which was obviously a very important job to have at that time while John was in Philadelphia with the Congress. So kind of get to see a bit of a softer side to John with that because he’s very hotheaded throughout the rest of the play.”

“I get to play Ben Franklin, and of course, we know Ben from the lightning rod and different things, but a lot of people don’t realize that he sat in the room and pushed the Declaration and was one of our Founding Fathers,” Michael D. Gore said.

But not all Founding Fathers were necessarily in support of independence, like Philadelphia attorney and politician John Dickinson. In CLOG’s production, Dickinson is played by Geoffrey Gregory.

“He’s staunchly against independence and he’s afraid that if independence is declared that the entire country will end up in war and houses will be burned across the country and the economy of the country will be destroyed because Britain is such a great power at that time,” Gregory said.

“I would call this a play with music, because it is truly a play at its finest and there is one scene in the show that’s lengthy without music till the very end,” director Nina Denton Pasinetti said. “It is not your typical song-and-dance musical with chorus girls and people parading but you do, at one time or another, see Jefferson and Adams and Franklin kicking their legs in fun playing with each other. It’s fun to see your characters that are icons cut up on stage. But it truly is a play, a very great play.”

But why this play, at this time, for this audience? In addition to it coinciding with America’s 250th birthday celebration, the play’s themes still resonate with the country whose origin story it tells, reminding us of an ever-so-important message of unity.

“It’s right for the time,” Gore said. “We’re split as a country. They were split as a Congress at that point. I think the good thing about the show is it shows how they come together. They made their differences. They worked through their differences to get what they needed and move on. I think that’s a message that we need to hear today.”

If you want to celebrate by learning more about America’s birth this weekend, shows are Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. – all at the Culture Center Theater in Charleston.