The play was produced and performed in a newly-restored ruin on the property of The Volland Store, a former general store re-purposed as an art gallery and event center.  Located 10 miles outside Alma in northeastern Kansas, it serves once more as a gathering place for the community, both near and far.

In addition to eight monologues and three scenes, the play also features eight sonnets that are interspersed throughout.  The decision to use sonnets in this play was inspired not only by the richness of the ideas and language local storytellers shared, but also by the literal contours of Wabaunsee County on a Kansas map. Suggesting the shape of a broad hand, it evokes those most essential capacities: to create and to work. Central to the nature of this county, the work of the human hand is thus at the core of this play, both through its characters’ experiences and in its creation by the hand of the playwright. The fact that the fingers of the human hand have a total of 14 bones also suggests a meaningful connection to the anatomy of the sonnet, whose 14 lines work themselves into poetry across a page.

Heart/Roots: Wabaunsee County is available for purchase from The Volland Store: