Last summer the Mangrove Creative Collective gave the green light to two projects for development. Shortly after one of the playwrights, Matt Stabile, wrote a blog. It gives great insight into what many artists feel when they first start creating. It is now a year later and as we are about to enter the next phase of the Mangrove process with Tangled Roots, the time feels right to share what Matt was feeling in the beginning. ~ Joseph M. NeSmith Let’s start this off with this:

Let’s have some fun! Let’s do something different! Let’s do something scary! Let’s prove that a live theater experience can grab you and shake you up! Let’s hold our breath as we white knuckle our way through a terrific story! I don’t think there are enough playwrights really pushing the limits of the thriller. I've spent a long time looking for just the right story to test the waters of terror on stage. I finally found it (by accident) while in the middle of researching my

Florida is full of treasure! At least it is to someone who is looking for great stories, history and colorful characters. And to us Mangrove creators, that’s as good as gold. So last month Margaret, David, Joseph and I left on a treasure hunt and headed out to the west coast to a place called Chokoloskee, Florida. In doing research for my project titled "The Prey," I learned about an old Florida gem just over an hour west of Miami called the Smallwood Store. An old coastal t