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By Les Leiter
What real-life events inspire a playwright? For Micki Shelton, who was living in southern California in October of 1994, it was the horrific tale of Susan Smith, a 23-year-old Union, South Carolina, mother of two who reported to police that a black man had stolen her car and abducted her two sons, Michael, age three, and Alex, 14 months. Two weeks later, Smith confessed she had strapped the boys into the back seat of her Mazda and driven it into a nearby lake, jumping out in time to save herself.
As the nightmarish details unfolded, Shelton was fascinated that Smith's fabrication had alerted police to arrest a man with a similar car who had abducted a child elsewhere in the state. That child was returned to his mother. Would a grateful mother want to thank a woman convicted of murdering her own children? Shelton thought she might and included both the murderess and the grateful mother as characters in Medea's Ghost.
Aware of the mythological roots of infanticide, Shelton researched the tale of Jason, the hero who captured the Golden Fleece, and Medea, the enchantress who helped him, betraying her own people and country in the process. When Medea is later abandoned by Jason after bearing him two sons, she kills the boys rather than have them suffer with her in the wilderness. Shelton admired the rendition of Austrian playwright Franz Grillprazer, whose play showed a more sympathetic view of Medea than the ancient writer Euripides. “That is my approach also," she said. “I want audiences to come away with some compassion for such a person, even with her terrible crimes."
Shelton, who relocated to Prescott several years ago, has had success with her plays thus far. One of her first, Circles, was selected as one of the six entries in Ashland, Oregon's New Play Festival in 1998. She has also delved into Arizona topics, including chronicling the contributions of 19th Century Western hotel pioneer Fred Harvey and his architect, Mary Colter, whose innovative work can still be seen at the Grand Canyon and in other Harvey hotels. Fred and Mary: An Unconventional Romance explores a mythical romance between the two. Shelton hopes the play will be featured during the festivities for the Arizona Centennial in 2012. A staged reading of Fred and Mary will be presented at Theatre Artists Studio on Tuesday, March 23. When not writing plays, she maintains a career as a writer and editor of textbooks for struggling elementary students.
 Though she lives some 90 miles from Phoenix, Shelton is an active member of The Studio, appearing frequently at our Writer's Circle workshops, meetings and many plays. “I appreciate this theater's abundant supply of actors and directors. It's the perfect vehicle for me," states Shelton. When asked about the distance, Shelton said “This drive is shorter than the three hours I drove from Carmel to San Francisco in the '90s."
The World Premiere full-length production of Medea's Ghost runs January 29 – February 13, 2010, at Theatre Artists Studio. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights and 2:00 p.m. on Sundays.
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