Contact: Sammy McDavid
David Dallas
A former graduate student who once helped care for the aging John C. Stennis is bringing his new one-man show about the late Mississippi political legend to Mississippi State, both men's alma mater.
Created, written and performed by David Dallas, "A Gentleman from Mississippi: One Man Salutes Senator John C. Stennis" will be featured Aug. 26 in a free 7 p.m. preview performance at the university's McComas Hall theater.
The special presentation is sponsored by the Stennis Center for Public Service, the Starkville-based agency established by the United States Congress as a national tribute to the DeKalb native who entered the Senate in 1947 and went on to become its president pro tempore.
Stennis, a 1923 Mississippi A&M College (now MSU) graduate, returned to campus in 1988 following his retirement. Nearly 90 at the time, he lived in a university residence for several years before declining health required his relocation to a full-care facility near Jackson.
Dallas, a former Cleveland resident, was among the MSU graduate students who served for two years as personal Stennis aides. In "Gentleman from Mississippi," he portrays three characters: himself as a Stennis caregiver; Stennis as a frail and wheelchair-bound former national leader; and Stennis at the height of his senatorial power.
Much of the script comes from a journal Dallas kept during his time with Stennis at MSU.
A former East Mississippi circuit judge who would have been 100 next year, Stennis died in 1995 and is buried at Pinecrest Cemetery in DeKalb.
After completing his master's degree in public administration at MSU in 1990, Dallas went to Washington as a Presidential Management Intern in federal service. He also holds a bachelor's in political science and English literature at Delta State University, where his father teaches history.
Last summer, following several years in public service and education, Dallas became a full-time actor in Philadelphia-Pennsylvania, not Mississippi-with the opening of another one-man show called "Barking Dawgs." He previously appeared in the Iron Age Theater's production of "Heaven Can Wait" and in the Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival's presentation of "Hamlet."
In its review last month of the show, the Philadelphia Inquirer called Gentleman "an engaging, very human portrait of a politician" and "an interesting mix of circumstances that make a refreshingly different variation on the standard one-person theatrical autobiography."
Following the Mississippi debut at MSU, Dallas takes the show to New York City for a Sept. 18-20 off-Broadway performance at the Century Theater.
"Gentleman" is scheduled to return to Philadelphia for a four-week run in October and November, then return next year to New York for another off-Broadway presentation. Discussions also are under way for shows in Washington, Chicago, Minneapolis, and aboard the USS John C. Stennis, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier based in San Diego.
For additional information on the Starkville performance, telephone the Stennis Center at (662) 325-8409.