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Truman and Nelle - TPR's In Focus - July 29, 2026 · In Focus with Carolyn Hutcheson

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  Support comes from the Rosa Parks Museum on Troy University's
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  Montgomery campus, located on the spot of Mrs.
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  Parks' historic 1955 arrest and featuring exhibits
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  that chronicle the history of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
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  More information at troy.edu/rosaparks.
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  From Troy Public Radio,
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  this is In Focus, and I'm Carolyn Hutcheson.
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  Author Marianne Weber knew Truman Capote and
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  Nell Harper Lee when she lived in Monroeville,
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  Alabama. Capote became famous for his book In Cold
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  Blood, and Mary Ann wrote a play about his trip with
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  Harper Lee to Kansas to interview the murderers who
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  were subjects of the book. She joins us today as the Wetumpka
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  Depot Players prepare to bring her story, Traveling with
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  Truman and Nell, to the stage.
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  Mary Ann Weber, welcome to Troy Public Radio.
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  You're so kind, Carolyn. I'm delighted you want to know more
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  about my play, Traveling with Truman and Nell.
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  Mary Ann, you're a well-known Alabama playwright and
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  author, and we recently talked with Tom
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  Salter, the director of your current play about
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  Truman Capote and Nell Harper Lee. How did you get interested
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  in their story? Well, I lived in Monroeville about
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  the time Nell Harper Lee's book was being published.
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  She was not well known at that time,
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  and Capote had several novels out. They were
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  waiting on the release of Breakfast at Tiffany's in a film,
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  and the two of them— I sort of started following
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  their careers vicariously.
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  And when I found that Truman Capote was going to
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  Holcomb, Kansas to interview some murderers
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  of a slain family out there, he asked
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  Nell if she would drive along with him and take notes. I guess he
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  figured that if you know anything about Truman, he was not going to get anywhere
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  with some of the people that were a lot more conservative and not
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  used to looking at somebody that looked and sounded like him.
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  So the two went along and spent several weeks out there
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  and got all the information they needed to
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  at least start on the book of In Cold Blood.
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  Of course, I had followed that through the years, and just
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  in thinking about what in the world did Truman and Nell
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  talk about after they got through with this experience
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  of interviewing these murderers, interviewing people in town,
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  the whole atmosphere there in this small
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  town where evil had not reared its head very
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  high in the past. Then I thought, well, I'm a writer.
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  I ride along with other writers. What do we talk about?
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  Everything you can think of. Our failures, our successes,
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  our worries. Will we get paid? Does it matter if we get
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  paid? How much we're going to get paid? Will something get published?
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  Just so many things, and then personal things too.
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  We talk about our families, we talk about religion, we might
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  talk about politics, we might talk about a current event going
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  on. So I tried to put these 2 authors at
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  that time period in 1960 when they were traveling
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  after their interviews in Holcomb. They're together
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  in a car and it's night, And they're talking,
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  and I'm hoping the audience will enjoy being just an
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  ear into that conversation. Of course, we don't know every
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  word they said, but I could sort of imagine what
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  they said, and I've come up with this play, Traveling with
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  Truman and Nell. And of course, it is presented
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  initially on July 31st at the Wetumpka Depot Players Theater
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  and is followed August 2nd, 4th, and 13th
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  through 15th. How well did you know
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  these 2 icons? Well, I met both of
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  them when Nell Lee's book first came out.
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  People in Monroeville had coffees for her,
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  and Monroeville is such a small community. I was usually
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  invited just as a newcomer in town to come and sit,
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  and she'd sit and smoke her cigarette, drink coffee, and sign books
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  for people. And I mean, she was just Nell. She'd never been anything
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  else but just their friend. Having grown up there.
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  Then Capote, as it turned out, was the first cousin
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  of some of our very dear friends in Monroeville,
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  the Jennings Carter family.
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  He, through the years, would entertain our family
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  with tales of what he and Truman did as children,
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  and then, like I had said previously, I was
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  enjoying following their careers vicariously.
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  I could do that with Capote, couldn't do anything with Miss Lee
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  because she was just such a quiet, reserved person,
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  and we know very little about her from the time she was
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  about 35 until, uh, right before she died in
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  Monroeville. Mary Ann, how much research did you
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  have to do to flesh out this story? Quite a bit,
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  because I wanted to bring as much fact as
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  I could into it. Of course, there's plenty of material
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  on Capote. I could use biographies on him,
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  use his writings. And with Miss Lee, there was a
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  lot of critique about her work, and I drew from
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  the material that Jennings Carter gave me for my book,
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  Truman Capote's Southern Years. So it was several
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  years of research, and I had such
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  a good connection with different friends who would
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  read parts of it and tell us the truth where we need
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  to dig deeper, and it always makes a better product when
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  we do that. So I'm just so grateful to the Wetumpka Depot
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  Theater for giving me this opportunity as a
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  fairly new playwright to present this on their stage
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  and to be so open and helpful to me. Have you been watching
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  rehearsals? Oh, yes. I've tried not to miss a minute.
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  I have loved watching Tom Salter, the director,
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  work with our 2 actors, David Shelton and Cammie
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  Phillips, coach them and help them know where to stand,
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  how to say, how to turn. So that's been an education in itself.
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  You had another play that was a hit in
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  your native Andalusia, Alabama. Ladies of
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  the Jury, and this goes back to a point in history.
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  Can you give us sort of a synopsis? This was in 1955.
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  There was a judge who had a custody case before him.
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  You know, women couldn't sit on a jury back then. We hadn't passed all
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  the rights to give us entree into that. So I think
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  he probably was worried about if he had to take this little
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  boy away from his mother, and 12 men were going to come in and
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  do that. I don't know if he was thinking about his next election or
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  whether his wife was going to half kill him when he got home,
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  but wisely he went out and he knew the
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  ladies in town, and he brought 6 of them in,
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  and he brought 6 ministers in and impaneled a jury.
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  And he said, now I don't have to abide by your decision,
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  but I treasure your participation on this.
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  So the case was presented, and the ladies of the jury deliberated
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  with the ministers, and they produced their verdict.
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  And I loved this story because this was
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  hidden in a news article in the Andalusia Star
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  News for years. Nobody paid any attention
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  to it. Those women, they were my mother's contemporaries.
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  It just led to my cousin and I spent hours
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  down in the basement of the courthouse going through old papers and
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  of course talked with people that had relatives that maybe had been
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  involved with it. Such an unusual but fun thing because
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  I thought, this is Andalusia, this is my hometown,
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  and this is a first— first ladies of the jury.
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  Well, in 1953, Alabama ratified the
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  19th Amendment to the Constitution and voter rolls were
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  gradually adding women. So I hope
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  you'll bring that play to other audiences.
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  Meanwhile, I want to thank you for your visit today, Mary Ann. Oh,
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  you're welcome, and thank you for this opportunity as well.
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  That was playwright Mary Ann Weber, and her play Traveling
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  with Truman and Nell will be brought to the stage by the Wetumpka
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  Depot Players starting July 31st and continuing
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  in August. More information can be found at the watumpkadepot.com
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  website. Thanks for joining us for In
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  Focus, which is a podcast wherever you get your podcasts,
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  and feel free to get in touch at infocus@troy.edu.
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  I'm Carolyn Hutcheson, and this is listener-supported
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  Troy Public Radio.