READ ABOUT "MOUNTAIN MEADOWS"
Writing about a historical event—even an innocuous historical event—offers plenty of challenges. For playwright Debora Threedy, taking on the tragic, controversial "Mountain Meadows Massacre" offered a chance to think not just about a historical event itself, but how people process it years after the fact. Threedy's world-premiere play Mountain Meadows takes its title and its launch point from the September 1857 attack on an emigrant wagon train in Utah by Mormon settlers, and the subsequent attempts to blame the murder on Native Americans and generally cover it up. Its focus, however, is not on portraying those events themselves, but instead on two women dealing with the aftermath: Nita, inspired by historian Juanita Brooks, who's researching the event; and Miranda, a survivor of the attack looking into her family's involvement.
