Surrounded by misfits, rednecks, and counterculture burnouts, John Gibson—the reluctant heir of an alcoholic grandmother—and Sarah McKay—a commune-reared "hippie-by-association"—search for self and community in the hole-of-a-town Boonville. As they try to assemble from the late-twentieth-century jumble of life the facts of sexuality, love, and death, and face the possibility of an existence without God, John and Sarah learn what happens when they dare to try to make art from their lives.

Nestled in the Black River valley with the Tug Hill Plateau to the east and the Adirondack Mountains to the west, Boonville traces its origin to the failure of a grand investment scheme. In the mid-1790s, Gerrit Boon, agent for the Holland Land Company, purchased vast acreage in northern New York, hoping to establish a plantation for the production of maple sugar. When that enterprise collapsed, Boon founded a settlement in the remote wilderness. Adopting a paternalistic stance, he attracted settlers by extending financial assistance to farmers, artisans, and tradesmen. The village soon prospered, and dairy farming became the dominant industry. With the arrival of a canal and railroad in the mid-1800s, Boonville expanded to become the largest town between Watertown and Utica. Around Boonville documents the growth of the village and surrounding area, with special attention to local landmarks and scenery, industry and recreation, prominent leaders, and ordinary citizens.

Typescript, 1980. Unmarked script of a play that premiered in New York, New York in 1980.

Surrounded by misfits, rednecks, and counterculture burnouts, John Gibson—the reluctant heir of an alcoholic grandmother—and Sarah McKay—a commune-reared "hippie-by-association"—search for self and community in the hole-of-a-town Boonville. As they try to assemble from the late-twentieth-century jumble of life the facts of sexuality, love, and death, and face the possibility of an existence without God, John and Sarah learn what happens when they dare to try to make art from their lives.