Miss Caledonia

Peggy Ann Douglas---tomboy, farm girl and dreamer---has a plan to escape her dreary rural existence. Against the wishes of her dour father and with the help of her resourceful mother, she’ll climb to the pinnacle of the small town pageant world with the hopes of opening doors to the wide world beyond. Melody A. Johnson’s one-woman play showcases her own quirky, charming stage presence, her beautiful turns of phrase that conjure pictures on a near-empty stage and her gently satiric take on life down on the farm. The story is funnily far-fetched in parts but it is at its core emotionally truthful. Mary Fay Coady’s violin accompaniment provides sound effects and punctuates certain scenes. The end result of all this is a play which captures the time, place and heart of the story in a magically minimalistic way. —Kate Watson