Synopsis and Characters

• XL Dancer: Columbus Frye’s brother-in-law and tenant; he works building the new highway for a white man named Prescott Ebert (played by Juwan Lockett)
• Roy Moore: A former basketball star who feels stuck in East Texas; he flirts with Charlesetta any chance he gets (played by Kelvin Roston Jr.)
• Columbus Frye: XL’s brother-in-law and landlord; Columbus owns multiple properties in the area (played by Alfred H. Wilson)
• Charlesetta Simpkins: The owner of the Top o’ the Hill Café; playfully holds off the advances of Roy Moore (played by AnJi White)
• Adolph: A regular at the café; a blind poet and veteran who lost his sight in the war (played by Willie B.)
• Delmus Green: A young man looking for work so he can build a life with his new girlfriend and leave East Texas (played by David Dowd)
• Buckshot: A mostly gentle giant for whom life is simple; he hates more than anything to be called “Titty Baby” (played by Geno Walker)
• Boochie Reed: Local gambler and soothsayer who can read people’s palms and sense what is coming (played by A.C. Smith)
• Prescott Ebert: A white man who employs XL and is rumored to be part of the Ku Klux Klan; a veteran who lost both his legs (this character is never seen onstage)
• Yancy: One of the missing highway workers (this character is never seen onstage)
• Luretha Robinson: Delmus’s love interest from Grapeland, Texas (this character is never seen onstage)

• The play opens with XL Dancer, Roy Moore, Columbus Frye, and Charlesetta Simpkins, chatting inside the Top o’ the Hill Café. It is 1955. The characters talk about their work, their dreams, the café, the past, their families, and their home. Issues such as racial discrimination and white supremacy are discussed in relation to the lives of the regulars.
• The group discusses Black men who have gone missing while building the new highway. Charlesetta and Columbus insist that XL’s boss, Prescott Ebert, is affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan and likely knows something about the missing men. The regulars urge an unconcerned XL to be careful. 
• Delmus Green says that Ebert offered him a job, but he can’t reach Ebert on the phone. He is eager to make some money and move to the city with his girlfriend, Luretha. XL offers to help Delmus contact Ebert and the regulars question the job offer.
• Boochie Reed enters and gives Delmus a palm reading, but it’s bad news. Everyone except XL tries to convince Delmus to reconsider the job offer; stories about missing Black men, including a young man who was found encased in cement, come up. 
• The regulars begin to question XL about this “job offer” and his insistence that Delmus take it. Delmus declares that he is taking the job and tries to leave the café. Buckshot stops him.
• XL admits that the Ebert brothers plan to “have a talk” with Delmus because they are interested in the same girl. It becomes clear that XL has set Delmus up as the Ebert brothers’ truck arrives. 
• The regulars press XL to go to the truck and explain that Delmus won’t be working with the Eberts. XL admits that one of the Black men who has gone missing also tried to date Luretha, Delmus’s girlfriend and the Eberts’ love interest, and he was killed. 
• Charlesetta gives Delmus and Adolph the keys to her truck so that they can sneak out of town. XL reluctantly goes to the Eberts’ truck. Delmus and Adolph safely exit and the Eberts’ truck leaves.
• XL leaves the café. After his departure, the regulars make plans to kill XL for his traitorous behavior. Roy looks out of the window and sees that XL has returned with the Eberts in a truck behind him. 
• Gunfire erupts in the café, and several characters are killed. The remaining characters load and cock their guns.

East Texas Hot Links takes place in an unnamed town in East Texas, in an area known as the Piney Woods bordering Arkansas and Louisiana. Several real towns, like Grapeland and Palestine, are named in the script.

 Check out this brief video by the Texas Legacy Project that gives a glimpse into the flora, fauna, and industry that make up the landscape of the Piney Woods.

The play takes place in 1955. These videos offer a look at what East Texas looked like around this time period.

• “Tyler Texas: Where Life Is Enjoyable” – 1955 by Tyler Texas Chamber of Commerce (39:13) 
• 1960s Rural Texas, Families on Porch, Southern States, African American by Kinolibrary (00:30) 
• 1950s Texas Driving, Highway, Cars, Color Home Movie Footage by Kinolibrary (01:22)