Longtime Buckhead Resident's Play Captures Margaret Mitchell

Longtime Buckhead resident Melita Easters has a special connection with the 75th anniversary of Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With the Wind."

Easters is known for her one-woman play, "Mrs. John Marsh — The World Knew Her as Margaret Mitchell." To kick off  festivities marking the anniversary of the book's publication in May 1936, a revised version of Easters' play will premiere tonight at the . 

Decades before Ted Turner dreamed up CNN, “Gone With the Wind”  put Atlanta and Georgia in the world’s spotlight. After its publication, the book went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction and to be adapted into one of the most beloved movies of all time

Mitchell wrote much of her hefty manuscript in a tiny apartment she called “The Dump” at 10th and Peachtree streets (you can walk through it if you visit the Margaret Mitchell House at 10th and Peachtree streets). Other portions of the novel, as well as revisions, were tackled in a larger Midtown apartment on East 17th Street, where Mitchell and husband John Marsh moved in 1932. After Mitchell received the Pulitzer in 1937, the couple moved to yet another apartment near the Piedmont Driving Club in Ansley Park.

The play's opening night includes a dessert-and-champagne reception, And not just any desserts; seven-layer caramel and chocolate cakes are being flown in. And Mayhaw jelly cheese-and-pecan pinwheels have just arrived from Colquitt in Southwest Georgia.

Performances continue through June 19. A number of special events coincide with specific performance dates. There will be hat contests at the Sunday matinee performances. And on Sunday, June 12, there’ll be a costume contest and promenade especially for “Windies,” the affectionate term for the most devoted of GWTW fans. (But participation is open to all. Yes, you are encouraged to dress as a character from the book/movie. Finally: the perfect opportunity to dust off your hoop skirt and lace up that stiff old corset.)

Easters, a longtime Buckhead resident who now lives in Sandy Springs, began her journey to dramatize the life of  Mitchell more than 20 years ago. A staged reading at the Alliance Theater in 1991 led to a two-week production in 1992 at the 14th Street Playhouse. Since then, more details and research have emerged about the reclusive author, such as “Margaret Mitchell & John Marsh: The Love Story Behind Gone With the Wind,” by Marianne Walker. Published in 1993, the 555-page account of the author’s marriage has been out of print for two years, but was just reissued June 1 by Atlanta’s Peachtree Publishers. Drawing on hundreds of personal letters not previously combed (as opposed to thousands of Mitchell’s letters housed at the University of Georgia), Walker’s book reveals what a strong support and essential guidepost Marsh was for his wife.

The 75th anniversary rendering of Easters’ play includes an audio-visual component of rare and historic photographs, as well as newsreel footage from the world premiere of the “Gone With the Wind” film that gripped Atlanta on Dec. 15, 1939.

In short, the revised script is “is a richer, more complete portrayal of Margaret Mitchell, and it probably has more humor than my original version,” Easters said. “The more you research a person, the greater your understanding. I found I was able to put one or two specific episodes into better perspective. And I allowed myself to be a little looser.”

Easters believes that “all the threads of my research now combine to bring to life the rich fabric of Margaret Mitchell’s life. My additional research, along with revisiting her work as a reporter have now filled in some of the gaps in that tapestry.” (Before she started writing a novel that she had no intention of showing to anyone, Mitchell worked as a feisty and fearless feature reporter for the Atlanta Journal’s Sunday magazine).

Easters’ two-act play unfolds in 10 scenes, most set in the 1930s. The last scene takes place on Aug. 11, 1949, just before Mitchell and Marsh left to see a movie. They never saw “A Canterbury Tale” that day. While crossing Peachtree Street in Midtown, Mitchell was struck by a taxi cab. She died five days later, three months shy of turning 49.

Kandace Christian, an award-winning Nashville-based actress who was Miss Mississippi 1992, will bring the “Gone With the Wind” author to life in Easters’ 90-minute play.

 “As a former beauty queen, she has that flirty charm down pat — that charm that was part of Margaret Mitchell’s debutante days,” Easters said of Christian. “She is also close to the age Margaret Mitchell was at the time the book was published and during the time most of the scenes take place.”

When Easters first saw Christian play Mitchell in a staged reading in Tennessee, she was further delighted that the actress handily captured Mitchell’s “steely toughness and determination.”

“The other neat thing about Kandace,” Easters said, “is the cadence of her voice. Because she grew up in Tupelo (Miss.), her manner is more akin to the natural Southern quality that was Margaret Mitchell’s voice in the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s.”

Mary Rose Taylor, founder of the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum, calls Christian is “a marvelous new talent” in the role of Mitchell. Taylor has also praised Easters’ play in general, saying it perfectly captures Mitchell’s “complexity, humor, and above all, her ‘Southerness’.”

Easters has visited the elderly at various locations in Atlanta, and has met some folks who long ago knew or had met Margaret Mitchell. For younger generations, the play “Mrs. John Marsh” seems the next best thing.

If you go: “Mrs. John Marsh — The World Knew Her as Margaret Mitchell” opens Thursday at Ansley Park Playhouse, 1545 Peachtree St., Atlanta, 30309. Opening night tickets with champagne and dessert reception: $35-$40. Performances continue 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and 2pm through June 19. Tickets $25-$30; group discounts available. Special “Talk Back” sessions with actress and author will follow evening performances on June 3, 8, 10, 16 and 17, and follow matinee performances June 5 and 15. 404-875-1193; email: tickets@ansleyparkplayhouse.com. Reservations and lineup of all special events: http://www.ansleyparkplayhouse.com/mmreservations.html