- My name is Gene Luckett, and I'm script editor for the Mississippi Center for Educational Television.

In 1969, we received a $10,000 grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to hold a Creative Writing for Television Awards Competition.

The purpose of the competition was to identify writers for television in Mississippi, and this was a very important search for us, since all of our production efforts here at the Mississippi Center for Educational Television are fully scripted.

The drama that you've just seen, "“Too Soon Passing,"” was the second-place winner in the Drama Division of that competition.

I'm happy to be talking with Christian Garrison, the author of "“Too Soon Passing,"” formerly of Batesville, Mississippi, and now of Jackson.

Chris, many of those who've seen your play or who've read your play have said that the theme of the hero being unrecognized in his own land is possibly a statement about William Faulkner.

How do you feel about this?

- Well, I think perhaps that can certainly be construed as part of the idea, I guess, I had in mind.

But let me go back and show you how, tell you how I first conceived the thing, because it's somewhat zany.

My wife, who reads anything that's printed.

I was reading a book one day, or back in 1968, 1969, or something like that.

Jessica Mitford'’s "“The American Way of Death.

"” And she would read portions to me, and some of it was really, somewhat very ironically funny.

And I got to thinking, what if a guy died, you know, without anyone's knowing who he was, or where, or what?

Well, I just kicked around in my head a while.

Then a title, the phrase too soon passing, hit me.

And I didn't really particularly put those two together at the time.

Then I heard about the competition about, I guess, a month before it closed, and I said, "“Well, I'm going to have to get in high gear here and write something,"” because I've been wanting to write something.

And then the idea hit me.

You know, living in Oxford, where William Faulkner is from since I was at the university.

I got to thinking, well, what if he had died before he had produced the bulk of his work?

And the idea hit me then I said, well, I'll just make the guy the hero, if you can call him a hero.

I don'’t think he'’s much of a hero, Wingo.

If he died, and what happens after that.

So in that respect, it's sort of like it's connected with William Faulkner somehow, or John Faulkner, or one of those.

- Many writers are sort of reluctant to let their masterpieces out of their hands and to turn them over to producers and directors.

They feel that the more people that come between the original idea and the finished product, the more that finished product is unrecognizable, perhaps, to the writer.

How closely do you think the final production of your play resembles your original idea?

- Well... a play, or any text that is written to be performed, I think is really not complete until it is performed.

Otherwise, it's just a closet drama just to be read.

But in relation to your question, you see, I'm primarily a director and secondarily a writer.

And to answer your question, there were certain things that I would have done differently about the production simply because I wrote it, and I had this scheme in my head.

But on the whole, there were certain things that did come out that really, I thought, were quite good and that did hit it right on the button as far as the script goes.

But I don't know.

It's hard for me to answer that in terms of being a writer, because I'm not primarily a writer.

I'm primarily a director who writes.

And it would be nice if all writers could direct, but well, I don't mean it that way.

I mean, if all directors wrote what they directed, then you would have a continuity, a certain overriding point of view that, you know, goes through the whole thing.

And that way he could blame no one but himself.

You know, the director would have to blame the writer who was himself, and the writer would have vice versa, blame the director, so I don't know if that answers your question or not.

- Well, I think it sort of did.

Let me ask you about this character portrayal, then.

Which one of the characters do you think came closest to fulfilling the role as you saw it?

- I think two somewhat stand out in my mind.

One the actor who played Lovelady, the coroner, I think he came quite close to what I had in mind.

He's an actor.

He's got good instincts as an actor, I think, and did quite well.

But I was very pleasantly surprised in one respect about the actor who played Floyd Beemer, the mayor.

He played him much kinder than I conceived him in my mind, you know, as I pictured him in the mind, as I was writing it.

But I think it was quite successful, his performance.

I think he did a fine job.

The actor who played Mayor Beamer.

He played him a lot kinder than, as a writer, I wrote it.

Now as a director, I might have seen that he was going that way and let him do it.

I think he did a good job.

Good job.

- The subtitle of your work, "“Too Soon Passing"” is "“An Almost Comedy"”.

Could you comment on the meaning of this subtitle?

- Hmm.

Well, that's sort of, I guess, a point of irony in that I should happen to call it an almost comedy.

It's very much like... it's almost hard for us to conceive that Moliere's play "“Tartuffe"” is a comedy, and yet it is.

It is a total comedy and very serious, and I think all good comedies are very serious.

So if we call "“Tartuffe"”, which is very biting, really, and very... - Satirical, yes.

- Yes, it's satire, but very pointed bite to it, a comedy.

That's I guess why I call it an almost comedy because it almost is.

And well, you could call it an almost tragedy, too, I suppose.

Well, along those lines, I think probably one of the most beautiful titles I've ever heard in my life was written by Tennessee Williams in a thing called "“The Slapstick Tragedy"”.

And that, to me, is... it's very ironic that those two should go together, but they fit quite well, especially in relation to the text.

And so an almost comedy is really an almost comedy, I suppose.

- Helps you define the meaning of the play.

We've talked for a minute about the characters.

Do you feel that the characters are stereotypes?

- Well, in some ways.

I wouldn't call them stereotyped.

Some people might say they're stereotype Southerners.

I don't say that.

They'’re just stereotype people.

I think just most people-- what I'm about to say is certainly not in fashion, and it's not the prevailing thought, I guess.

But I think most people are stereotypes just as people.

And that's certainly not fashionable to say that.

And maybe I shouldn't say it, but that'’s just the way I feel.

- Are they based on real people?

- In parts, I guess they are.

You know, little tidbits here and there.

Codified and made into a whole as a character.

- Who's the young man at the end?

Who does he represent?

- I just wanted to preach a little right there and I threw him in.

I thought of the line about-- I can't remember exactly-—about circus or the zoo.

And then I just said, Well, I'll just throw that in.

And it's just preaching, I guess.

- Some people say that selfishness is a quality that's somehow more inherent in small town people, because of the fact that their environment is somewhat limited.

Do you think that this is true?

Do all the players, all the characters in your play represent those selfish, small town people?

- Well, I don't know that it's so much selfish.

It's that they're fools.

See, all people, in my opinion, all of us are fools and most of us are quite successful at it.

And it's not so that they're successful-- I mean, selfish.

Some are quite selfish.

And through this play they show a great deal of some kind of selfishness.

But as far as being small town people being more selfish than, say, urban people, I don't really see that.

It's just a different type of selfishness.

- Chris, let me ask you a little bit about your future.

The judges in the drama division were Harold Prince, Reginald Rose, and Rod Serling, three certainly internationally known figures in television and in drama.

One of those judges said of your play, and of you, "“This writer could go to work for the networks tomorrow.

"” Could you briefly tell us something about whether you intend to do this?

- Well, let me say that when I heard that Mr. Rose had written that, it made... he doesn't realize it, but he probably that was one of the greatest influences on me ever, as far as writing goes, because I was just about to give up after I had written this thing and, you know, say, well, maybe one day I'll write.

But then when he wrote that, it spurred me on.

And since then, I have been fortunate enough to have co-authored a feature film, which has been produced here in Jackson, and co-authoring another script that will be produced here, as well as written, oh, I guess three or four other feature film scripts that have not been produced yet, and a musical that has not been produced.

- Good.

I'd like to wish you good luck, Chris.

I've been talking with Christian Garrison, author of the drama "“Too Soon Passing"”.

This is Gene Luckett.

Thank you for being with us.