Heber City theater company Timpanogos Valley Theatre’s production of the Tony award-winning musical “1776,” which depicts the months of debates leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, is full of famous faces. But actor Don Doud is playing a somewhat obscure Founding Father.
Doud had never heard of Delawarean Continental Congressman Caesar Rodney until he was cast as him.
In a fictionalized scene set in early June 1776, Rodney breaks up a fight between fellow delegates John Adams and John Dickinson, who are on opposing sides of whether the colonies should secede from Britain. When Rodney finally gets Adams and Dickinson to stop trying to whack each other with their canes, he collapses due to his health issues from skin cancer.
The scene is a reminder that debates over independence were a lot more contentious and chaotic than what might be presented in a history class. It’s also a microcosm of what director Kristen Hughes wanted to accomplish with the play: encouraging civil disagreement in a politically polarized time.
In tone, “1776” has more in common with “12 Angry Men” than “Schoolhouse Rock.” Most of the lyrics of the opening song, “Sit Down, John,” are about the sweltering heat and flies buzzing around Independence Hall in Philadelphia.
Hughes called Adams, the song’s subject and protagonist of the play, a “pushy little man” whom other delegates disliked because of his insistence on independence.
The play depicts each of the Founding Fathers not as infallible heroes, but human beings with their own quirks.
Thomas Jefferson is introverted and cerebral, while Benjamin Franklin is a manipulative jester of a politician, constantly “schmoozing” and “partying” with his fellow delegates. They’re far more than faces on currency, as Hughes put it. Each delegate had their own grievances, or lack of them, depending on their colony’s interactions with the crown. As such, each man had a different idea of what independence should look like.
That’s explored when Jefferson writes a draft of the Declaration of Independence that impassionately condemns slavery as a “cruel war against human nature itself,” despite being a slave owner himself.
That passage was later removed. The exact reason why is unknown, though Jefferson, in his autobiography, said it was a concession made to delegates from South Carolina and Georgia.
“That’s the one concession they made, which later just kicked the can down the road to the Civil War and caused lots of bloodshed. It’s very sobering,” Hughes said. “(The song ‘Molasses to Rum’) talks about how the North is complicit because they provide the ships that bring the slaves. They use the sugar. They drink the rum. They consume the products created by the slaves. So, they’re making money off it, too, even if they don’t own them.”
In the play, it’s delegate Edward Rutledge of South Carolina who performs the number; “1776” often combines several delegates into one character.
Dickinson, the delegate from Pennsylvania and the play’s antagonist, embodies the argument against independence, hoping for reconciliation with Britain. In the play’s climax, he does not sign the Declaration of Independence. Even as he makes that decision, his greatest opponent, Adams, applauds his character.
Hughes hopes the pair’s respect for each other despite their differing opinions inspires audience members to engage in political discussions with people they disagree with.
“We’re all working towards the same problems. We have different ideas about how to solve those problems, but maybe that’s how we’ll come to the best solutions,” she said.
Hughes sees “threats of authoritarianism” under the current presidential administration as the greatest threat to the country today.
“My personal (point of view) is that things are being dismantled, institutions and things that have kept safeguards in place for a long, long time. … The power structure is being altered,” she said.
She hopes that reflection on the signing of the Declaration of Independence during its 250th anniversary prompts Americans to become passionate about defending its founding principles of democracy and unalienable rights.
“(The Founding Fathers were) willing to put their lives and their property and their families on the line,” Hughes said. “It was a huge sacrifice on their part, and it is something that we could maybe hold more reverently or dearly than we do.”
Even if “1776” doesn’t engender those feelings in all audience members, Hughes is content with the fact that she was able to hold the attention of a few “Hamilton”-obsessed teenage audience members who attended a performance last week.
“They said, ‘We were in here for three hours, and it didn’t feel like three hours,’” she said. “If a teenager says that, I feel like there’s my little gold star on the forehead that we did our job.”
Timpanogos Valley Theatre’s production of “1776” will be staged Wednesday and Friday, with a special matinee performance on Saturday as part of Heber City’s Red, White & Blue Festival. The play’s 29 actors will also be marching in the city’s morning parade and would love to share their characters’ real stories. Learn more and buy tickets at timpvalleytheatre.com.