GARRET MATHEWS PRESENTS “SANDRA’S STORY” A TWO ACT DRAMA/COMEDY
“Sandra’s Story†is a two-act drama/comedy that examines urban poverty through the eyes of a precocious 10-year-old girl. Only one child in Sandra’s class does not qualify for the free-lunch program. Few caregivers graduated high school. Many have problems with drugs and alcohol.
A dozen or so years ago, she invited me to volunteer at her fourth-grade class at Cedar Hall Elementary, an at-risk school in Evansville. It was truly an eye-opening experience. Many of her kids had never been to the mall or a ball game or a museum. So I took them, usually in groups of two or three. Occasionally I wrote metro columns (Evansville Courier & Press) about our adventures.
Not only did Mindy welcome me into her classroom, she facilitated our excursions by clearing the way with the children’s caregivers.
While “Sandra’s Story†is a work of fiction, several things that transpired in Mindy’s classroom and on our little field trips are in the play.
I dedicate this production to Mindy, and educators like her in the ongoing struggle to impart knowledge and wisdom to their young charges when the home front isn’t always what it should be.
Toni Schaperjohn directs “Sandra’s Story.†Jasmine Withrow is stage manager.
The eight-person cast includes veteran performers Rick Kersting, Candi Vincent, Mark Atchison and Jim Hunter.
Show dates are March 18, 7 p.m.; March 19, 7 p.m.; March 20, 2 p.m.; March 24, 7 p.m.; March 25, 7 p.m.; March 26, 7 p.m.  at Studio 321 on the East Side near Eastland Mall. Evansville-area agencies that work with at-risk young people have been invited to set up informational booths in the theater lobby.
EDITORS NOTE: Â Garret Mathews is retired from writing the metro column for The Evansville Courier & Press. He came to the newspaper in 1987 after writing for the Bluefield (W.Va.) Daily Telegraph for 15 years. He penned more than 6,500 columns on subjects ranging from mail-order brides and Appalachian snake-handlers to a female bootlegger from Western Kentucky who was still selling wine and beer on the sly at 91.
