By DELANIA TRIGG, Register Staff Writer
Guests of the Butterfield Stage Theater were in good company Thursday evening when the organization hosted playwrights Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten.
Butterfield has staged several Jones, Hope and Wooten plays including “The Dixie Swim Club,” “Dearly Beloved” and the upcoming “The Hallelujah Girls.”
The trio are currently the most produced playwrights in the country, according to Butterfield Director Tamera Broyles.
Broyles said she was honored to have the writers in the theater for last night’s reception.
“It is not often that a small community theatre such as Butterfield has the opportunity to actually meet and talk to the creators of the shows they do. Jones, Hope & Wooten have a unique ability to write shows that are as fun to produce as they are to watch. Our cast of volunteers has had a blast producing their shows and we are so grateful for their interest in us! It was certainly a very special evening we will treasure forever,” she said.
Writer and actor Jesse Jones told the guests she and her writing partners “do a lot of research” and “follow the theaters that do our shows.”
Visiting these theaters is a priority. “We stay in touch, and in time, we fashion a tour,” Jones said.
Writer and casting director Nicholas Hope said the trio — who have been working and writing together for 13 years — plan to visit 15 theaters during the tour.
The three playwrights have impressive resumes.
According to joneshopewooten.com, Jones has co-authored the award-winning play “Dearly Departed” which was later adapted into the feature film, “Kingdom Come.” She has also written for television sitcoms and an animated Disney series. Jones is also an accomplished actress who has appeared onstage in New York and in regional theater as well as in television and film, the Web site states.
Hope is an award-winning playwright who has written episodic television for Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Studios. He was also director of casting for Theatre Communications Group in New York, The Goodman Theatre in Chicago and ABC Television in New York and Los Angeles.
Jamie Wooten, is a prolific writer for network television who has nearly four hundred episodes to his credit. He was also a Writer Guild of America award winner who wrote for the television series “The Golden Girls.”
Backstage at Butterfield, the writers talked for a few minutes about their experiences admitting that they “fight like cats and dogs” while writing 7 days a week.
The process is obviously successful.
“We’ve just developed our techinique,” Hope said. “We all pitch in ideas.”
Writing together may actually be easier than traveling together.
“We argue about which exits to take,” Wooten joked.
The playwrights are known for their southern-style comedies which include the popular Futrelle Family Texas trilogy.
Hope said it takes anywhere from four to six months to complete a play such as the playwrights’ recently-released “Till Beth Do Us Part.”
Jones presented a signed copy of the new play to Broyles during the reception.
Afterward the three writers talked about their craft.
Life in the South is something all three understand.
With that in mind, they say they avoid using Southern stereotypes — women with big hair, exaggerated accents.
“We have found if you spin (a characterization) too hard, it doesn’t work,” Wooten told an audience of Butterfield board members during a question and answer session.
The playwrights also say years of working in Hollywood left them searching for something they could not find in California — normal people.
The change also gave Jones, Hope and Wooten a chance to write for and about people who they believe are underrepresented in Hollywood.
“We grew up in small (southern) towns of less than 3,000. (They were) populated with some of the most unbelievable people you would ever meet,” Hope said.
Southern comedy is cathartic for both audiences and writers, he said.
Wooten agrees.
“We tapped into something that’s healed our hearts,” he said.
Writing about people who are older than 35, who face trouble and find happiness in the end is rewarding, Hope said.
“We love victors. You like to see the little guy win. The fact that we write about families and friends, there’s such a universal connection you want the characters to come out on top,” he said.
Jones, Hope and Wooten also create female characters who are tough and resourceful.
They looked to their mothers and grandmothers for inspiration.
“We all grew up with extraordinarily strong matriachs in our families,” Hope said.
Wooten said the writers deliberately create characters with whom audiences can identify.
“Women over 40 really don’t get to see themselves reflected in Hollywood. .Women who live in real America don’t do what you see on reality TV,” he noted.
The busy playwrights spent about two hours at the theater talking with board members and staff members and enjoying refreshments.
Afterward, Jones told audience it was time for she and her partners to leave.
“We have lines to go before we sleep,” she said.
