The Rural We: Ann Gallo
Although Ann Gallo and her husband first came to Tyringham, Mass. in 1999, she admits she would still be considered a newcomer by many of the people in town. That hasn’t stopped her from her mission to dig into the town’s history and to produce community-based theater by and for the residents of Tyringham through her nonprofit UBU Theater. Gallo's latest project is “Women of Tyringham,” an original site-specific, oral history theatrical production, which she conceived, produced and is directing, and which is being performed by Tyringham residents. Performances are scheduled for July 24, 25, 31 and August 1 at 11 a.m., outdoors in the Tyringham Cemetery Field.
I grew up in New England, and after I married my husband, we moved to Italy for a few years, and then New York. We became full-time Tyringham residents about six years ago. I studied theater and music composition as an undergrad, and have a master’s degree in theater education. In 2017 I produced “Our Town,” which involved about a quarter of the town. It took a year for the community to build trust in me, but it ended up that the whole community, if they were not participating in it, came and saw it. After that I produced the Tyringham Arts Festival, and then the people wanted to do another play. I like to do site-specific productions; I think it makes interesting theater.
I’m on the Tyringham Historical Commission, and when I was in the commission’s quarters — the old schoolhouse — I came across a pile of cassettes and had them digitized. They were interviews with townspeople taken many years ago. In over 60 oral histories, only four were of women. I started thinking about how I could get a swath of women included, so I conducted 32 interviews and from them pulled material for a play. Author Rachel Urquhart (The Visionist), who lives here, wanted to help, so she became a partner and co-wrote the original script. We had a reading pre-Covid, and over the course of the last 18 months, developed it through Zoom meetings. Original instrumental music has been composed by Clark Wallace to help weave the multiple stories together, and local musicians have volunteered to participate.
First rehearsal at performance location. Photo: Margaret Dillon-Katz
All of the dialog in the play is from the interviews with the women. When you ask women a question, they don’t talk about plowing, or floods or storms. They talk about what they could have, should have done, and what they did do. Their stories come from a deeper place — their life and family, their husbands. There were wonderful pearls that came out of these stories that were very surprising. One scene involves a Me Too situation. Before we started rehearsing it, we had a safety conversation. I think we all cried. It was an incredible coming together.
This is the most committed group of people I’ve worked with. They come on time, they learn their lines. They are really putting themselves out there. We also have three very brave gents performing multiple parts.
We’re in the process of rehearsals and will finish blocking it this weekend. Throughout all of this, I’ve learned about certain individuals that I never really knew about. There are so many layers, like an onion. What’s interesting also is that all of the donors to the theater are women. I’ve hit this wonderful nerve. People really do want to hear these stories.
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