Event

The Measure of a Man

In 1973, my step-father woke in the middle of the night to his second wife thrashing, uncontrollably, next to him in bed. She was having a brain aneurysm. My step-father called for an ambulance. But he still had the problem of the six kids in the house. my step-father ran out the front door looking for help. He found it.One caravan in the trailer park across the street from his house had its lights on.This was my parents trailer. So, my father drove my future step-father to be with his dying wife while my mother went over to watch her future step-children, with my toddler sister in tow and me in her belly. Three months later I was born. Three months after that my father, Billy Joe Lawrence, a long haul trucker, died on the interstate. This is the story of me, a shy and thoughtful kid, my step father, an angry man ruled by grief and rage, and the long shadow cast upon us both by Billy Joe Lawrence, legendary good ol boy who died young and handsome and loved by all who knew him.

In his latest solo show, Brad Lawrence tries to figure out the legacy of the two men who would have been a father to him but for all the things that got in the way.