WEATHERSFIELD, Vt. (WCAX) – Local residents are bringing a piece of their town’s Revolutionary War history to the stage, performing a play based on a 250-year-old document discovered in a vault.
The play, “We Most Ardently Desire,” centers around an associate pledge from the provincial government of New York that town archivist Patti Arrison found several years ago.
“And then at the end I saw it was signed July 1st, 1775, and so I had to figure out what it was,” Arrison said. Thanks to a grant from the Vermont Historical Society, Arrison researched and wrote the story.
The play depicts a debate that took place in 1775 among the 24 patriarchs in Weathersfield about whether to sign the formal complaint against the British parliament, and ultimately rejecting the authority of the British crown.
Now, 250 years later, that event is coming back to life on the stage. Arrison said many of the themes from 1775 hold true today. “Worries about tariffs and taxation, worries about arrests without due process. Worries about loss of freedoms that should belong to every British citizen,” she said.
John Waite, a Weathersfield Proctor Library trustee who encouraged the writing and performance, said the play offers timely lessons. “History doesn’t rhyme, but it does resonate. And we are at a time in our own history where people are questioning the legitimacy,” Waite said. His character eventually signs the pledge. “All governments require the consent of the governed.”
The production serves as a way for the small town to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday while preserving local history.
For cast members like Glenna Coleman of Ascutney, the play provides a window into the region’s past. “I haven’t always lived in Weathersfield. I didn’t grow up in the school system and learn the local history, so this has been kind of a window into the local history for me, and it has been really interesting,” she said.
The production is a partnership between the Weathersfield Historical Society and the Weathersfield Proctor Library. A reading of the play will take place at the meetinghouse on Sunday.
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