Family Values 

Produced by The Park Square Theatre, St. Paul, MN
Written and performed by Jim Stowell
Directed by Richard Cook

“It’s a terrible title for a captivating show. It conveys no sense of the play’s big heart and the vivid, singular souls that form the core of Stowell’s fascinating stories. Stowell is a citizen of the world in the best sense. When he journeyed to Norther Ireland, he stayed in the heart of the action in one of Belfast’s most dangerous Catholic neighborhoods. That’s the way he operates wherever he goes: Live within the culture—get to know the characters who exists in the service of the plays ultimate, overwhelming question: Where does hope come from? People can and do create hope comes the answer, one child at a time.” (St Paul Pioneer Press. Nov. 1, 2003)

I went to Northern Ireland as a part of what has been a strong interest of mine for many years. Revolution. Who knows where this comes from. Maybe because I grew up in Texas and before Texas became Texas, they were a part of Mexico and then they had a revolution, they beat Mexico and became their own country, then Texas was a part of a failed revolution against the United States. As a young writer I went to Mexico and met with a man who fought with Poncho Villa and had two bullet scars to prove it. I traveled to Nicaragua to learn about the Sandinista revolution. When Jessica and I were in Guatemala there was still Army and revolutionary forces fighting going on. We were staying in a small town on a famous lake and six men were killed in fighting near a village on the other side of the lake a few days before we arrived. I lived with a Catholic family in the Belfast, Northern Ireland neighborhood that had the most violent incidents of anywhere in the country during the long revolution against the English invaders. And, of course, Cuba. The play Cuba Si explains my personal connection to the Cuba revolution.  

I didn’t plan on writing a play about this trip. I just wanted to see what was going on. Plus, this was a part of a larger pleasure trip for Jessica and me. We planned on staying in a cottage on the sea in the Irish Republic for two weeks. Kind of pay back for her going with me to the Amazon jungle and the mountains of Nicaragua.  I ended up wanting to write about the trip but I couldn’t interest a theater in producing a play about the trip. At that time Dean Seal was running the theater at the Bryant-Lake Bowl. (BLB) Dean is a long-time friend and we wanted to work together and we made a deal for the BLB to produce my play but before the play could be produced the management at BLB and Dean came apart and Dean was fired/resigned. I ended up working with his replacement. This young man made lots of promises to me about how the BLB was going to really push this play. How he was behind it 100%. He was very, very flattering to me personally. Less than a week before opening, he left town and it was his job to see that press releases and publicity were taken care of and he had done nothing. I performed the play and there were small audiences and no press reviews at all. I had a great time doing the play and the audiences were truly into the show. The staff at the BLB were very helpful and great to work with.

I was acting in a play at Park Square Theater and approached Richard Cook the AD of the company about producing my Northern Irish play. Richard didn’t like doing new plays but because this play had the BLB production he felt more comfortable producing it. Richard and I had a good time working together on the play. He helped me rethink and then rewrite parts of the original and the version at Park Square Theatre is better than the one I performed at the BLB. 

Dean Seal and I did finally produce this play together and, like everyone else, he didn’t like the title of the play. He talked and talked and talked to me as only he can, and I finally gave in and agreed to change the name of the play to, The World’s Most Frequently Bombed Hotel. His title is better, but, for this record, I am keeping the title of the show when it was produced at Park Square. The review is from the Park Square production.