Jackie had "a face like a road map -- lines goin' every which way. And red dabs of makeup, here and here, on both cheeks. Mascara you could cut with a knife. Eyebrows like two McDonald's arches. And she had ... I'll never forget 'em ... she had green fingernails. Like nothing I'd ever seen before."
In Kent Brown's play "Valentines and Killer Chili," Jackie is a waitress in her "sunset years," working day and night at Big Tom's Pit Stop outside Amarillo, Texas. She's all jokes and flirtatious smiles and flying feet delivering the truck stop's specialties -- coffee and "super chicken" and "killer chili" -- but of course, there's more to her story. And on this particular Wednesday -- which happens to be Valentine's Day -- a trucker named Jason steps hip deep in the middle of Jackie's ocean of angst and anger.
Husband and wife team Tim Gilster and Terry Vaughan had been in love with Brown's script since long before there was an entity called the Smokehouse Players. Their friendship with Brown, a well-known chairman of the University of Arkansas drama department, dates back to the 1980s, before they moved to New York to pursue professional theater. They even saw what might have been the first production of the one-act play with Brown at a theater in Pennsylvania. And when they moved back to Fayetteville recently, arts supporter Frank Sharp approached them with the idea of producing the script.
"We were hesitant because it's a one-act," Vaughan says, "but Frank had the idea of serving a chili dinner and having music, so it's turned into a full evening of entertainment."
Like the previous Smokehouse Players' shows, "Valentines and Killer Chili" will be presented in the Chillin' Room at Sharp's Ozark Mountain Smokehouse west of Fayetteville. It's a unique space one enters through a heavy steel cooler door, but inside it's warm and cozy, with room for about 60 patrons at booths and in chairs. The intimacy allows Vaughan's Jackie to make the audience part of the cast as she serves them coffee and chats them up before turning her attention to Jason -- portrayed by Gilster -- and his shiny red box of Valentine's Day chocolates.
"The guy who'd sold 'em to me said they were the best and ... I was hopin' he weren't lyin'," Jason says. "I was gonna leave 'em for her at the counter. Had a note all ready. 'From the Biggest Super Chicken on the Road... Lots of Love.' I thought she'd like that. Make her laugh. It wasn't a big deal... just some silly candy. Why not? There was no one else to give 'em to."
The result of his overture is not what either one of them imagined.
"I think the overall theme is loneliness and isolation," Gilster muses. "Isolation and loneliness block our ability to make truly meaningful connections."
"They're looking for things in each other they may or may not find," adds Vaughan. "It's sweet and funny and poignant."
FAQ
‘Valentines and Killer Chili”
WHEN — Feb. 8-9: Doors at 6 p.m., dinner at 6:30 p.m., music by Rob Button at 7:30 p.m., show at 8 p.m.
WHERE — Chillin’ Room at Ozark Mountain Smokehouse, corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Rupple Road in Fayetteville
COST — $20 donation; wine & beer will be sold; all proceeds to Magdalene Serenity House
INFO — smokehouseplayers@g… or 935-4219
RESERVATIONS — Required in advance at the Smokehouse Players or Magdalene Serenity House pages on Facebook.
NAN What's Up on 01/27/2019