Lindsey Wilson University TheatreFest! Cast Members Tour Shiloh Battlefield to 'Get Closer to the Story'

Trip to Shiloh National Military Park helps bring play about reenactment battle to life for actors.

by Duane Bonifer

SHILOH NATIONAL MILITARY PARK, Tenn. (07/27/2025) — Before they take the stage for the Lindsey Wilson University TheatreFest! production of Shiloh Rules, the cast spent Saturday, July 26, getting closer to the story they will tell July 31-Aug. 3 on the stage of V.P. Henry Auditorium.

The play's cast members and director, Lindsey Wilson theatre professor Robert Brock, spent a good part of the day at Shiloh National Military Park in southwestern Tennessee. They watched a documentary about the pivotal battle that took place on April 6-7, 1862, walked some of the nearly 5,000 acres of the national park and visited several key locations of the battle.

The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, helped turn the tide for the Union in the Civil War's western theatre. Shiloh, which comes from the Hebrew word that means "place of peace," was the bloodiest battle up to that point in the war. Shiloh's casualties of more than 23,000 were more than the combined casualties of all previous American wars up to that point.

Written by Doris Baizley, Shiloh Rules is a six-character comedy set during a reenactment of the battle. The six women depicted in the play include four reenactors, who are contending for "Best Female Reenactor of the Year"; an enterprising and opportunistic concessionaire; and a U.S. park ranger who attempts to keep the peace from another battle breaking out.

Brock said that having cast members tour the battlefield gave them "an opportunity to see, to explore and to experience the place that inspired this so they can get closer to the story."

"You can only read so much text or rely on dramaturgy so much to bring a story like this to life," said Brock. "You really need to have a visceral experience with this place and its surroundings to understand what the characters are about and what they are fighting for."

Observing chaos and panic

Places the cast explored included where the fighting commenced on April 6, 1862; the Hornets' Nest, where Union soldiers were taken prisoner; the battlefield's national cemetery; monuments to units who fought in the battle; the Shiloh church; and a couple of mass graves where Confederate soldiers are buried.

Another place cast members visited was the Bloody Pond, near the Peach Orchard, where Confederate general and Kentucky native Albert Sidney Johnston was mortally wounded on the battle's first day. The Bloody Pond, which is a shallow pool of water, earned its name from the wounded soldiers and horses who sought relief there.

Kassidy Phelps '24 of Burkesville, Kentucky, who plays Union nurse reenactor Miss Clara May Abbott, said that seeing the Bloody Pond affected the way she will interpret her character.

"It made me think what it would be like to actually be there and seeing soldiers going through that," said Phelps, who is a graduate assistant. "It really changed the way I think about my character and how she would go about things."

Mayatu Brown '27 of Columbia, who plays U.S. park ranger Ranger Wilson, said "this was a very profound trip" because it helped her see "how truly chaotic the battle was, and the panic that everyone was experiencing."

"There's a major scene where my character finally sees the chaos of the battle and how terrifying it was," said Brown. "She has this moment where there is this field of unalive people. It shakes her and scares her, and it makes her realize how deadly this war was. I think it helps her empathize with the reenactors and why this battle is so important to them."

Zoe Boatright '28 of Columbia, who plays Confederate refugee reenactor LucyGale Scruggs, said the trip "helped me see and helped me understand who LucyGale is as a person."

"It also helped answer the question why she would want to take part in a war that was so bloody," she said.

Sabrina Ruiz '26 of Louisville, Kentucky -- who plays Meg Barton, a new Union nurse reenactor -- said she could relate to one of the actual Union soldiers who fought at Shiloh. While watching the documentary of the battle before touring the battlefield, Ruiz said she took note of a 16-year-old Union soldier from Ohio whose first battle was Shiloh, just as in Shiloh Rules, it is her character's first reenactment.

"Just seeing the blood and the thunder in the video, and all of these bodies laying everywhere, made me think about all of the things my character sees and thinks," she said.

Lindsey Wilson alumna Kayla Koerner '25 of Columbia, who plays Confederate refugee reenactor Cecilia Delaunay Pettison, said the trip to the battlefield "helped enhance my character and have that emotional delivery when I bring that to the stage."

"It helped me think what a person not only during the Civil War was like but what it was like to be a woman in the Civil War and how it affected her family," said Koerner, who teaches fifth grade at Adair County Elementary School. "Miss Pettison is a Confederate refugee, so it was interesting to see the mass graves and to think what it would be like to have a family member who was buried there and not to have been able to have seen them again."

"Shiloh Rules," written by Doris Baizley and directed by Lindsey Wilson theatre professor Robert Brock, will be presented by Lindsey Wilson TheatreFest! at 7 p.m. CT July 31-Aug 2 and at 2 p.m. CT Aug 3 in V.P. Henry Auditorium. To purchase tickets, go to theatrefest.org or contact the Lindsey Wilson Theatre Department at theatre@lindsey.edu or 270-384-8044.

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