1/8/2009 11:02:10 AM
A Look at the Farmscape Farm Journal magazine
by Charles Johnson
All too often, writers attempting to capture the essence of rural America miss
the mark, causing real rural folks to either shudder or howl with derisive
laughter.
That’s what makes the Farmscape drama written by an Iowa State University
English creative writing class so intriguing. It presents 10 wide-ranging
viewpoints of rural life. The result: something that approaches the real
diversity found in rural America, with impact far beyond the student
playwrights’ wildest dreams.
Mary Swander, a rural resident herself, directed the students to fan out across
central Iowa and interview real rural people. Their comments were used in Iowa State University
the one-act play the students wrote after quite a bit of research. professor Mary Swander
directed students to write a
The interview subjects included an independent hog operator, the owners of a docudrama on the diversity
small organic vegetable farm, a corn/soybean farm couple, a winery owner, a of rural life.
failed farmer, a Monsanto employee, a retired couple, a hog slaughterhouse
worker, bed-and-breakfast owners and an older farmer who failed in the
business and reminisces about farming with horses.
The objective was to write a docudrama, Swander says.
“The students shaped it. I sent them back two or three times to reinterview
some people. Interestingly, even though we’re at a college in Ames, Iowa,
none of the students had an agricultural background, so they had to study
agriculture some. We stopped everything for a couple of weeks and just read
about agriculture. I filled in some background. They came back then and
developed a lot more awareness of rural life,” Swander says. The student-written play
gives a realistic view of
The play opened in February 2007, with the student playwrights playing the rural Iowa, says Mike
parts. Large photos of the people they interviewed were placed on stage, Hansen, a Bouton, Iowa,
however. After that first performance, the Leopold Center, also located in farmer portrayed in it.
Ames, awarded a grant to the play. Since then, it has been performed around
Iowa, as well as Chicago and Omaha and is beginning to tour nationally. A show is scheduled in Charleston,
S.C., with others pending.
Rural’s long reach. Swander now uses local actors and a minimal stage set for the performances.
“It’s a dramatic reading, and actors read from the script. The set is just three benches. Projections flash up on
the screen, some of them pictures of the interviewees themselves. We have shots of hogs, chickens, a lot of
rural things,” Swander says.
“This has been a really fun project. The students were as much editors as I was, and that allowed them to see
the process of creation all the way along.

Mike and Stephanie Hansen, who grow corn and soybeans near Bouton, Iowa, and were interviewed for the
play, say it turned out well.
“We were presented as a family farm. The student came out with a recorder and interviewed us, then visited
again, and then we talked on the phone every once in a while. When he interviewed us, we didn’t know if
they’d ever do the play,” Mike says.
“When they did perform it, we went to see it. They portrayed us so well. They did it just the way we said it.
Even our dog Sidney was in it. It’s a realistic view of rural life. They weren’t teasing or making fun. It was
serious, not like we were a bunch of hokey farmers. It got across pretty good the points of what rural America
was all about,” Stephanie says.
Swander, author of 11 books, has written poetry, fiction, nonfiction and drama based on rural life. She is
proud that Farmscape has an Ames legacy in Agart, a group that was inspired to form by the play. Agart
meets every other month for programs of rural
music, painting and literature.
“People really came out of the woodwork. These are people from all over campus, not just the ag school,
people you sort of knew about but never had a chance to sit down and talk to, who now interact in a social
community context that didn’t exist before Farmscape. It’s great that they now have this interest in the art of
rural America,” Swander says.
You can e-mail Charles Johnson at cjohnson@farmjournal.com.
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