Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008

Valley Falls woman brings history to life in Civil War film

by Sara Peterson-Davis

Lesa Brose is all about bringing history to life.

As a member of the staff at Constitution Hall in Lecompton and as a Civil War era re-enactor she is dedicated to giving people an accurate glimpse of what life was like in 1860s Kansas.

Photo by Sara Peterson_Davis

Lesa Brose sits in her kitchen with photo albums and clippings chronicling production of Bloody Dawn: The Lawrence Massacre.

Photo courtesy of Matt Walker

Lesa Brose's character Mary Carpenter screams as Confederate Bushwackers shoot her husband, Judge Louis Carpenter, played by Greg Hunt.

About Lone Chimney Films

This month, she will bring history tolife on the big screen in “Bloody Dawn: The Lawrence Massacre,” a docudrama about the Aug. 21, 1863 raid by Missouri bushwackers on Lawrence’s freestate leaders.

“I’m so excited about this,” said Brose,
who lives south of Valley Falls. “When you’re filming you don’t know what it will look like.”

The film will premiere in several Kansas cities in mid-January. It will premiere in Lawrence Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. at Liberty
Hall. Later it will air on public television.

So far, Brose has only seen the
promotional trailers for the film.

Brose plays Mary Carpenter in the Lone Chimney Films production. The wife of
Judge Louis Carpenter, history says
Brose’s character stood between her husband and the drunken bushwackers who were firing at him.

Brose spent two days last summer at Wichita’s Cowtown Museum filming
her part in the docudrama. The film’s
crew and cast were made up of
historians and reenactors who made
certain that the production was true
to the era.

“A lot of people have preconceived notions about what it was like back then,” said Brose, who holds a bachelors of science degree in social science with an emphasis in history from Kansas State University. “Little girls came to the set in braids, but girls wore their hair shoulder length with a hair band or ribbon.”

The production’s hairstylist restyled the girls’ hair to fit the times before their scene.

Brose had no previous acting experience before walking on to the “Bloody Dawn” set. The closest she had come was as a re-enactor from the Oregon Trail and Civil War periods.

Brose and her daughter, Dianna Welsh, were drawn in to re-enacting by Brose’s mother, Molly Ledeboer. Ledeboer, who is the costume coordinator for the Columbian Theatre in Wamego, asked the duo to model period fashions and make living history presentations at various historical events around the Midwest.

When Brose went to work at Constitution Hall, she joined the Lecompton Reenactors.

The three heard about the docudrama when they attended a period dress ball at the Eldridge Hotel in Lawrence. The event was a fundraiser for Lone Chimney Films. At the ball the film’s producer, Kenneth Spurgeon, announced that he was looking for reenactors interested in participating in the film. All three women signed on.

The film is based on a book of the same name written by Thomas Goodrich. The docudrama looks at the political climate of the times, the events leading up to the massacre and re-enacts the massacre that left an estimated 150 men and boys dead.

“The thing that got me was that everything was wiped out,” said Brose, who has read extensively about the massacre. “They didn’t have enough lumber and nails to build coffins.”

The film features narration by Buck Taylor, best known for his role as Newly O’Brien on television’s “Gunsmoke,” and commentary by historians.

While Brose’s mother was an extra, she and her daughter landed roles as historic characters in the drama.

Welsh was given the part of Sally Young, a young seamstress who was nabbed by Quantrill’s men while riding the morning of the massacre and forced to show them where Lawrence’s freestate leaders lived.

But Brose’s character was featured in one of the film’s most intense scenes.

On the morning of the massacre, a group of bushwackers came to the Carpenter’s home looking for Judge Carpenter. The first time he was able to persuade them to leave. But when they came a second time, drunk and disorderly, they shot the judge and chased him through his house. He collapsed in the yard and his wife, Mary, threw herself on him to protect him.

Brose said it is interesting that it never occurred to any of the bushwackers to shoot Mary Carpenter to get to her husband.

“It would have been beneath them to do that,” she said.

Finally, one of the bushwackers pulled Mary Carpenter aside and shot her husband in the head.

“Talk about terrorism,” Brose said, “and it happened here.”

In the docudrama Brose screamed and pleaded throughout the scene. Her screams were so realistic that dogs in a nearby neighborhood howled and barked.

“My mom got tears in her eyes when she was watching it,” Brose said. “People on the set were tearing up. For me, I was just in the middle of doing it. I’m anxious to see it.”

Brose’s screams are featured in the film’s theatrical trailer and her pleading image graces one of the film’s posters.

Filming the movie made the Carpenters and the massacre intensely real to Brose. After her part in the production was over, Brose went to Lawrence and researched where the Carpenter house stood. The site at 943 New Hampshire is now a parking garage. She also went to Oak Hill Cemetery to visit Louis Carpenter’s grave.

“It wasn’t just me,” Brose said. “Another woman who was in the film said she had to do the same thing.”

Brose hasn’t been able to find out much about what happened to Mary Carpenter after the massacre. She plans to keep researching to find out more.

Brose thoroughly enjoyed the two days she spent filming in Wichita and said she would love to do another docudrama in the future.

“I hope this gets people interested in Kansas history,” Brose said. “I think it’s important for people to understand it.”