God Bless America: A WWII Radio Hour Friday Night

Friday, May 1, 6 p.m. in the Augus Theater in San Augustine. The public is invited for free. Donations will be appreciated.

In God Bless America: A WWII Radio Hour, Shellie O’Neal portrays Sally Brennan, a fictitious radio show host. Throughout the course of the 54-minute performance, Sally sings six of our nation’s anthems, including “God Bless America”, “The Star-Spangled Banner”, “God of Our Fathers”, ”Battle Hymn of the Republic”, “America the Beautiful”, and “My Country, Tis of Thee.” Throughout the play, Shellie provides historical background for each of the anthems, and she includes quotes and perspectives from the Founding Fathers. Sally also sings radio commercials of the era, as well as “You’re a Grand Old Flag.”

About the creator and performer: Dr. Shellie O’Neal served as the Chair of Theatre at Navarro College for 24 years and directed 94 NC Theatre productions. O’Neal has written 28 plays, two of which have won Texas state playwriting competitions and three of which have been published.

Dr. O’Neal grew up in Carthage, Texas, and received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Texas at Tyler and her Ph.D. from Louisiana State University. She was voted Professor of the Year by her colleagues and students at Navarro College in the spring of 2012. Shellie began performing her first one-woman show, This is My Story, This is My Song: An Evening With Fanny Crosby thirteen years ago, and she has performed that piece 195 times in 180 locations in Texas, New York City, Washington, D.C., Colorado, Arizona, Maryland, New Jersey, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Italy.

O’Neal began performing her second one-woman show, The Ministry of Angels, in December, 2015, and has given 80 performances of that play.

Dr. O’Neal started performing God Bless America: A WWII Radio Hour in the summer of 2019 after researching our nation’s anthems in Williamsburg, Virginia; Brandon, Vermont; Boston, Massachusetts; Richmond, Virginia; Washington, D.C.; and Baltimore, Maryland.

One of Shellie’s children’s plays, 911 Gnomes: A Christmas Emergency, was chosen as one of twenty plays worldwide to be performed at the inaugural RAVE Theater Festival in New York City in August 2019. Nine Navarro College Theatre students and alumni performed Shellie’s script five times in an off-Broadway theatre on NYC’s Lower East Side.

Shellie is the proud granddaughter of Ordria Gipson, a U.S. Marine who served at Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, and Bougainville during WWII and who was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his bravery.