Lipscomb hosts free production of student-written children's play, <em>Kevin the Celt</em>

Janel Shoun | 03/31/2008

Freshmen Courtney Taylor, of Nashville, and Rebecca Bennie, of Brentwood, have barely started their college careers at Lipscomb University, but they can already call themselves playwrights and boast a production of their work.

The two girls spent last semester assisting Lipscomb English instructor Deb Holloway in writing Kevin the Celt, an original children’s play inspired by Irish folk tales about St. Kevin, a hermit who had a great affinity with animals. Audiences can attend a free production of Kevin the Celt at 7:30 p.m., Friday, April 11, and at 3 p.m., Saturday, April 12, in the Lipscomb University Theater, on the Lipscomb campus in Green Hills.

Holloway, who for several years has directed annual children’s plays that tour Nashville schools, came up with the idea for a children’s play based on St. Kevin while she was touring Ireland this past summer.

“I became fascinated by the St. Kevin legends, because kids love watching plays about animals and they love watching people play animals,” said Holloway. Last year she took a similar animal-focused play, The Re-Match of the Tortoise and the Hare, on a missions tour to Wales and received such a great response, she knew the legends of St. Kevin from their neighboring country would be great follow-up for this year. Kevin the Celt will head to Wales this spring.

Taylor and Bennie have been an integral part of the process and added a great deal of youthful charm and humor to the work, Holloway said. “The students wrote the song lyrics and the scripts and added their sense of humor. During the rehearsals, they have probably done as much directing as I have. It’s been a team effort,” she said.

Kevin the Celt is based on five simple legends about miracles performed by St. Kevin involving animals. Once he touched a passing cow and it produced an extravagant amount of milk from then on. When a baby was left on his doorstep, he produced milk from a deer to feed the baby. Another time he went to the forest to pray with his hands raised and outstretched for 40 days, long enough for a blackbird to build a nest in his hand, lay eggs and send her new babies flying out into the world.

So how do two college students make such simple stories into a 50-minute play for children: by adding a lot of jokes, music the kids will recognize, Irish jigs and inventive costumes.

Take the cow for instance. The two student authors have the cow traveling all through the countryside singing “I like to Moo-ve it, Moo-ve it!” (a reference to the Reel 2 Reel dance hit of the 90’s) before coming upon St. Kevin. The audience will hear the Mission Impossible theme, “You Can Fly,” from Peter Pan and plenty of funny jokes targeted to kids, Holloway said.

Taylor and Bennie’s work on Kevin the Celt continue what has become a Lipscomb tradition of performing student written plays. In fall 2006, the theatre program produced a play by senior Maggie Bouldin on the emotional toll of divorce on children. In fall 2007, the university produced a play by senior Drew Smith on grief, friendship and recovery.

The play also includes original songs written by retired Lipscomb music professor Gerald Moore, and inventive costumes created by David Lipscomb Campus School kindergarten teacher Becky Collins.

For more information on the performances, contact Holloway at 966-5728.