A children's play that has been touring throughout the United States is coming home for two performances at the Lawrence Arts Center.
"The Boston Tea Party," an original script by Lawrence playwright Ric Averill that was most recently staged in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., will be performed by the Seem-To-Be Players at 1:30 p.m. today and Sunday at the arts center, 200 W. Ninth St.
Chris Waugh, left, plays a Yankee named Simple and Piaf Latham-Winter-Green portrays Mercy Otis Warren, a Revolutionary War-era pamphlet writer, in the play "The Boston Tea Party." The play will be presented by the Seem-To-Be Players today and Sunday.
"It toured three weeks in the Dallas area, one week in St. Louis and Des Moines, two weeks in central Kansas, and it will end up at the Folly Theater (in Kansas City, Mo.)," said Averill, artistic director of the Seem-To-Be Players. "It's the second year it's toured. It toured 11 weeks last fall."
"The Boston Tea Party" is told from the viewpoint of Mercy Otis Warren (Piaf Latham-Winter-Green), a Revolutionary War-era pamphlet writer as well known in her day as Thomas Paine.
Warren and Boston's chief occupier, General "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne (Chris Johnson), saw themselves as playwrights and wrote dueling plays. Burgoyne's "The Blockade of Boston" was countered by Warren's "The Blockheads of Boston." In Averill's play, Warren represents the heroic cause of the colonists and Burgoyne represents the villainous Redcoats.
A Yankee named Simple (Chris Waugh) narrates the "play within a play," which addresses the sequence of events that lead the country to sever ties with King George III and England. Crispus Attucks (Jason Ware), a former slave who was a dock worker in Boston and killed during the Boston Massacre, also helps tell the story.
"It's a melodrama and at times the audience can participate," Averill said. "It's enjoyable for kids in kindergarten and on up."
The 55-minute play incorporates the use of a King George III puppet, music in the style of "Schoolhouse Rock" and period costumes.
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