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ReCON$truXion Play Premieres at ASF - TPR's In Focus - April 8, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Rosa Parks Museum on Troy University's Montgomery campus,
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  located on the spot of Mrs. Parks' historic 1955 arrest, and featuring
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  exhibits that chronicle the history of the Montgomery bus boycott.
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  More information at Troy.edu slash Rosa Parks.
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  From Troy Public Radio, this is In Focus, and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson.
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  The post-Civil War era has intrigued historians because of the aftermath of the epic North-South
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  Battle.
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  We learn more about Reconstruction with the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winner, Robert
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  Schenken.
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  The Alabama Shakespeare Festival will present the world premiere of his new play, Reconstruction,
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  on the Octagon stage April 23rd through May 3rd.
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  Robert Schenken spoke with us recently about the historical figure at the center of his story.
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  Robert Schenken, it's an honor to have you in Alabama, and welcome to Troy Public Radio.
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  Thank you, Carolyn.
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  It's a pleasure to be here.
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  Robert, you're a Southerner.
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  You have a Southern story that is a world premiere coming up April 23rd.
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  What's the story?
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  The play is Reconstruction, and this is its world premiere.
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  Good citizens of Central Alabama will be the first in the world to hear this.
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  It's a story about a man who's been lost to history, John R. Lynch, one of the greatest
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  politicians of his period, 19th century.
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  John Lynch was enslaved.
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  He was 17 years old working on a cotton plantation in Louisiana when he was liberated by a company
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  of Union soldiers, and seven years later, he was elected Speaker of the House of the
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  Mississippi Congress.
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  He was a preternaturally gifted politician and orator who would go on to be a U.S. Congressman
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  and lead a distinguished, ambitious life in American politics.
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  And we've lost sight of John.
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  This brings John back to life and the period in which he thrived and fought his hardest
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  battles, Reconstruction, after the Civil War, 11 years later, ending at the presidential
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  election of 1876.
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  How did you run across this story?
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  I'm a fan of history, and this period, this 11 years in American history is not well known,
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  but it's always intrigued me, especially after the two plays that I have most recently
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  on Broadway, the so-called LBJ plays, about Lyndon Baines Johnson, All the Way, and The
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  Great Society.
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  It's very clear that the origins of the political and cultural conflict in those plays were
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  rooted in this period, 1865, 1876, Reconstruction.
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  So I wanted to go back and try to find out what exactly had happened there, and why is
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  it that we know so little about it, or have such divergent opinions about what happened
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  there.
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  And in the process of exploring that subject as a potential play, I stumbled on John R.
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  Lynch, and was immediately taken with this individual and his struggle to birth an America
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  that was more like the America promised by the forefathers in our Constitution and Bill
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  of Rights.
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  It's a dramatic, tumultuous time, and the play that has resulted, I think, which will
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  have its world premiere at Alabama Shakespeare Festival, is a very entertaining, enlightening,
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  and provocative piece that I think your audience is very much going to enjoy.
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  How is it provocative?
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  I like to ask good questions of my audience so that they might sort that out, what that
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  means to them, because ultimately it's their experience of the play and the story that
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  really matters most.
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  And when I've succeeded in that, then I've done my job.
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  How does this play, reflecting that period of history, Reconstruction, speak to today?
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  This idea that there are very strongly differing opinions about Reconstruction, and so much
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  of that is about control of the narrative.
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  Who gets to tell the story?
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  I think we are experiencing a period right now in which the federal government is stepping
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  forward in a very bold and aggressive way to control the narrative.
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  What can be taught?
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  How it can be taught?
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  What parts of our history should be expressed, and what parts of our history should not be
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  expressed?
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  And of course, there are lots of different conflicting opinions about all of this.
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  That is one of the things that is at stake right now.
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  The way the name of the play is spelled is unusual.
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  What's the story behind that?
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  And it's spelled that way because I want to say something immediately to the audience.
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  Whatever you know about Reconstruction, this is very different.
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  And I want you to think about it differently.
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  It's spelled R-E and then capital C-O-N, Con, because one of the charges laid against
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  the period of Reconstruction is that it was a con job.
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  It was a bunch of northern people that came down here to our south when it was at its
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  weakest and take advantage of us.
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  There's another theory of history which suggests that the con job was in reverse in terms of
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  how that story was told.
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  There's a dollar sign in there.
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  Anything to do with politics has to do with money.
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  And finally, there's a capital X in that Reconstruction, and that X is a tip of the hat to contemporary
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  Black politicians and the struggles of the 60s and 70s.
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  So it's just my way of having a little fun with the title and prodding the audience to
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  open themselves up to a new telling of this story.
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  What more can you tell us about post-Civil War Reconstruction?
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  The war is over.
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  South is defeated.
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  Much of the country is in ruins, 800 plus thousand people dead.
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  Families are shattered, grieving.
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  Everything is up for grabs.
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  It's an extraordinary hinge point in American history.
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  There are very real attempts to seize this moment and to make the new America that will
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  emerge from it more accurately reflect the promises and hopes of the U.S. Constitution.
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  But it's up for grabs.
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  And the play is very much about who wins and what is the story told about that victory.
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  Your play is being presented on the Octagon stage at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.
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  Do you think that intimate setting is important to your story?
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  I think it's going to be extraordinary.
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  I'm very, very happy.
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  First, let me just say that the Alabama Shakespeare Festival is an extraordinary theater.
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  The Octagon is just a terrific theater space.
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  I couldn't be happier being there.
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  It is, as you suggest, very, very intimate and I think is perfect for this play.
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  How lucky are you to have this theater in your midst?
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  And how happy am I to be using your theater?
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  It's a great space.
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  How do you think the message of this play, Reconstruction, can influence us as a society
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  going forward?
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  It is even more important and incumbent upon us today to be mindful of our complicated
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  history and try to find a way to move forward as a country, which inevitably entails both
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  a reckoning and reconciliation.
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  I think John Lynch, who fought so hard and so nobly, who never gave up, is a real symbol
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  of hope and endurance and a belief in the possibility of our better selves.
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  John R. Lynch still speaks to us and what he has to say still matters.
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  Robert, thank you so much for your visit today.
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  It's a pleasure to talk to you and talk to your listeners.
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  I hope you will all come see Reconstruction at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.
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  I'll see you there.
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  Award-winning playwright Robert Shanken spoke with us from the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.
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  His play, Reconstruction, will have its world premiere April 23rd on the Octagon Stage and
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  will be presented through May 3rd.
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  More information can be found at the ASF.net website.
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  Thanks for joining us for In Focus.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is listener-supported Troy Public Radio.