The three short plays in Family Dramas: Theater in the Attic were written for the Families exhibit by local playwrights Patty Lynch and Beth Gilleland. Each play uses humor and drama to tell a few of the many family stories found in Minnesota history.

The Spite Fence, by Patty Lynch, is set in Duluth in 1906. It will take you into the home of Charles and Sigrid Walker, where they reminisce about falling in love when they worked together at St. Paul’s Hotel Ryan. As an African-American husband and a Swedish immigrant wife, however, they also experience pain and hardship as they try to build their life together. This play is based on a true story found in the collections of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Also based on collections from the Minnesota Historical Society is The Jimmy Pepper File by Patty Lynch. In this play a present-day researcher discovers the story of the turn-of-the-century Pepper family, who must deal with the harsh reality of putting their 17-year-old mentally retarded son into the Minnesota Institute for Defectives (now the Fairbault State School and Hospital). As the researcher uncovers the Pepper story she is distracted by her own emotions, for she has just had to put her mother into a nursing home.

If the expression, "Why can't you be more like your brother (or sister)?" brings back memories, you will enjoy My Perfect Brother, by Beth Gilleland. In this humorous and poignant look at sibling rivalry, the author recalls her relationship with her "perfect" older brother while growing up on St. Paul’s East Side during the 1960s. Even if you are an only child, this play will remind you that families have always had to find ways to get along.