A Voice from the Past

I recently heard from Neil Lewis, who lived and worked at Barksdale in 1956 and 57, three and four years after our company's founding. Neil is the handsome young man holding the stringed instrument in this photo of the Barksdale founders from a 1957 issue of Living for Young Homemakers magazine.

In her 1984 book, Going On…Barksdale Theatre – The First 31 Years, our co-founder Muriel McAuley wrote about our stage company’s commune-like beginnings. “It was a hot bed of hot beds the next couple of years. Anyone anxious to work 18 hours a day without pay, to freeze in the winter and roast in the summer, was welcome. At various times, ‘Resident Members of the Company’ included Neil Lewis, Dorothy (“Midge”) Midgett, Sandy Wade, Arthur Burgess and Pat Pringle.” There’s also a previous mention of Miriam Simmons “moving in.”

Miriam Simmons and Sandy Wade are faithful audience members today, and we see them with some regularity. I’m delighted to have now heard also from Neil Lewis. He adds some more information about the notorious outdoor drama (To Rise One Day) that Barksdale attempted in 1957 for the 350th Anniversary of Jamestown. Here’s what he had to say.

“Bruce-

Thanks for your note bringing me up to date on Barksdale and its people. It does seem like a long time ago.

A bit of musical trivia...the unusual instrument I'm holding in the Living photo was a guitarra Portugesa, similar to a mandolin and famous worldwide for its performance of April in Portugal a big instrumental hit in the 50's.

The outdoor drama (I remember referring to it as To Writhe One Day) was indeed a taxing debacle. One of my tasks was to do the makeup for our lone Indian, actually a British fellow who rode his bicycle to and from Hanover nightly.

My first performance of Tom's writing was in a radio drama commissioned by WTVR in which I played the manager of a ski resort. Tom got wind that Wilbur Havens, the producer, intended to pay him for a radio script and then film it for TV. Tom retaliated by setting several episodes down in a mine shaft with no light and several from atop the Eiffel Tower. The series was never aired. The compensation for this was $3.00 per episode. We would do 5 in an evening. Since I was purchasing my first car (a 1934 Dodge coupe with a rumble seat), Tom wrote me in for a word or 2 in a number of episodes in which my character was not really involved, as Havens was paying I think Tom did it just to tick him off.

During the excavation for the amphitheatre, Stu and I discovered what may have been a bone large enough to be from the age of dinosaurs. After some debate as to whether to call in experts we decided to rebury it and stay silent.

While I was a resident in the Tavern, I was doing a children's show on WRVA called Just Kids. We ran over 50 shows, but were programmed opposite the Mickey Mouse Club, and eventually succumbed.

I left the Richmond area for Arizona, returning East a few years later to work on a Masters in Communication at American University. In 1961 I moved to the Virgin Islands. I worked in radio until becoming an owner/operator of a Day sailing business.

My next trip to Richmond was to take my daughter to see RPI (by then, VCU) where she enrolled in a theater/dance program. She remained for a BS degree, then off to NYC for a career in wardrobe, several years in soap opera and ending on Broadway. She married and served as president of a dance company upstate for over 10 years, before moving with her family to New Zealand.

We visited Barksdale briefly and chatted with Nancy and Muriel.

I spent several years building a large wooden sailing schooner. When it sank some years later in Hurricane Marilyn, I used the insurance money to buy a hotel barge for luxury trips on the Canal Du Midi in the South of France. We sold the business after nine years and for the most part retired.

We currently split our time between our little village house in Le Midi and the Virgin Islands.

I have promised my wife to show her Richmond one day. Should I do so I'll let you know and perhaps I can give her a tour of the Barksdale she has heard so much about. At 73 one doesn't plan too far ahead.

I'll bet when you asked me to write and let you know what I've been doing, you didn't expect such a long ramble.

Sincerely,

Neil Lewis”

It’s great to hear from Neil, and to have him confirm that an adventurous artistic spirit stays an adventurous artistic spirit. We wish him all the best, and will post for posterity any further recollections he sends our way. For any of you who want to learn more about the doomed amphitheatre production, I’ll reprint Muriel’s recollections in an upcoming blog entry.

If any of you other blog readers have Barksdale memories you’d like to share, please email them to me at b.miller@barksdalerichmond.org