"Blue Ridge Mountain Christmas" on Hardscrabble Knob

Posted by Phil Whiteway
We're pleased to announce the cast of Blue Ridge Mountain Christmas, our world premiere holiday musical at Hanover Tavern, running Nov 25 - Jan 8. Returning from our Smoke on the Mountain trilogy will be five beloved actor/musicians: Emily Cole, David Janeski, Drew Perkins, Aly Wepplo and Eric Williams, all members of Barksdale's version of the Sanders Family. Joining the fun for the first time will be Katrinah Lewis, Nick Shackleford and Anthony Smith.

Direction is by Anna Senechal Johnson, with music direction by Drew Perkins. The original script is by our artistic director, Bruce Craig Miller (he uses his middle name only as a playwright, to avoid confusion with another writer named Bruce Miller). The music is mostly traditional mountain music with English and Irish origins. All instruments (guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, dulcimer, flute, piano, harp, bass, etc.) are played by members of the cast. Kelly Kennedy is offering assistance with music and choreography. Set design is by Terrie Powers, and costume design by Lynn West.

A Little Background - In 1912, a team of U.S. Forest Service employees headquartered at an inn named Mountain House, located about 20 miles outside Staunton. They walked, drove, rode on horseback, and surveyed the mountains and valleys of Virginia's Highland, Bath and Augusta Counties. Their work led to the 1913 purchase of more than 38,000 acres on and around Shenandoah Mountain--some of the first property to be acquired for the Shenandoah National Forest.

Connecting Mountain House with Hardscrabble Knob, the second highest peak on Shenandoah Mountain, a creek called Ramsey's Draft flows freely through these high Allegheny Mountains. From its headwaters of mountain springs at nearly 4,000 feet in elevation, the stream drains the wilderness's 6,500 acres. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps build a road that roughly followed the path of the draft, allowing Shenandoah Valley residents unique and previously unavailable access to Hardscrabble Knob.

On cold December evenings in the 20s and 30s, the mostly poor Appalachian residents who once owned this land would travel in horse drawn wagons, up the new rough road, toward Hardscrabble Knob. Before reaching the peak, they'd leave their wagons at road's end, and climb through a dense stand of old growth hemlock, giant trees that had begun as seedlings at about the time that Columbus was "discovering" America. At the rocky peak, they would join as a community to perform their treasured holiday traditions, sing and play their ancestral songs, and celebrate this Garden of Eden that their English, Irish, Scotch-Irish and German ancestors had settled in the 1700s.

Historian and writer Lella Smith, who's family has lived in the Blue Ridge Mountains since before the American revolution, writes that in the 1930s, two areas in the United States were acknowledged as sacred: the Four Corners area of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Nevada; and the mountains surrounding the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Several peaks contained "dancing grounds, sacred places where paths crossed and people gathered to dance by moonlight."

Today, Mountain House is nothing but a wayside parking lot with picnic tables. The road constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps was washed away by Hurricane Camille in 1969. The majestic hemlocks have been devastated by an infestation of the wooly adelgid, and nearly all of the 500-year-old trees now have died.

In Blue Ridge Mountain Christmas, we'll venture back to December, 1938, to Hardscrabble Knob on Shenandoah Mountain (from which you can look east to the Blue Ridge), and revisit a merry night during the Great Depression when a group of warm-hearted Appalachians gathered in joy on a cold mountaintop to honor a sacred season and celebrate a magical land that was no longer theirs.

--Phil Whiteway

Why Are Certain Actors Pre-Cast?

Posted by Bruce Miller
A noteworthy comment was posted to the previous blog entry. I appreciate the perspective of the writer and the kind words (not included below). I will definitely take the stated opinion to heart. I also offer some additional perspective of my own.

The comment reads, in part, as follows: "I honestly believe there are some in the community (a large number, actually) who DO feel that you tend to favor and precast one particular actor in town. I need not mention his/her name because EVERYONE knows who I am speaking of. Is this person talented? Without question. Should he/she be HANDED 2-3 leading roles per year without auditioning? No. Being "Richmond's favorite actor" comes a little easier when you are in Bruce Miller's back pocket. Why not let said person get in line with all the actors and fight for the part? Who knows, maybe someone else in line will surprise you! Just two cents to add to the pot."

To be fair to Joe Inscoe and Scott Wichmann (pictured at the top in Shipwrecked - I'm not sure which one the commenter is referring to, since both fit the bill), let me say that both guys audition regularly at theatres around town, including ours. And sometimes they don't get cast. If anyone incorrectly perceives that either actor thinks he's above the audition process, let me put that idea to rest. Joe and Scott get in line with all the other actors in town all the time.

So the issue is all about the directors and producers doing the casting, not the actors being cast.

I make a thousand decisions a year (in close association with Phil Whiteway, Chase Kniffen and lots of other folks) regarding how to keep Barksdale and Theatre IV artistically and financially sound. Phil Crosby, Larry Gard, Grant Mudge, John Knapp, Carol Piersol, James Ricks, kb saine, Derome Scott Smith, Tom Width, and the good folks at CAT, HAT, SPARC et al do the same regarding their theatres. All of us have the responsibility to keep our nonprofit companies afloat.

When a director and I precast Joe or Scott, it is because we know they will turn in terrific performances. I also know their names in ads will help sell tickets. Again, I've heard a lot of ticket buyers talk on the other side of that one-way mirror, and the names Joe Inscoe and Scott Wichmann are spoken with regularity.

Every other artistic director in town knows this too. Therefore, we've gotten to the point where if I don't nail down Joe and Scott many months in advance, another artistic director will nail them down and I'll lose them. This is not always the case, but it often is. Joe and Scott are regularly offered work at theatres (and on films) both in town and out of town, and I almost always compete with other directors to secure a contract.

The same thing can be said (at varying degrees) for Brian Barker, Stacy Cabaj, Desiree Roots Centeio, Larry Cook, Sandy Dacus, Patti D'Beck, Paul Deiss, Ford Flannagan, Jan Guarino, Lynne Hartman, Audra Honaker, Tamara Johnson, Jackie Jones, Ron Keller, Kelly Kennedy, Joe Pabst, Steve Perigard, Melissa Johnston Price, Adrian Rieder, Ali Thibodeau, Debra Wagoner, Aly Wepplo, Ginnie Willard, Joy Williams, Irene Ziegler, and several others. They've each worked their way into that place where artistic directors (and/or freelance directors like Billy Christopher-Maupin) talk to them and begin wooing them for projects many months in advance.

That's not the way it used to be, but it is the way it is now. Actually, I was behind the eight ball on this one. James Ricks, Tom Width and Rusty Wilson led the charge to get actors to commit to projects really early. It was a smart move on their parts. I've learned from them, and have begun to copy in order to keep up.

For the artists, it's a good thing. For Richmond theatre in general, it's a good thing. I love the fact that Richmond is starting to have "stars" and I'm doing what little I can to increase that trend. I think it adds to overall interest in theatre, and appropriately recognizes the amazing talent that exists here.

I think we should all love that. But with the increased buzz comes this reality: competition for "star" talent is growing more and more intense. Increasingly, this means that the talents of certain individuals will be secured months in advance.

Another component that drives this trend is health insurance. Several of Richmond's finest theatre artists rely on their unions for their and/or their family's health insurance. They begin negotiating a year in advance to ensure that they'll book enough work weeks from a company that pays for health insurance in order to guarantee that there will be no gaps in their coverage.

The last thing to be considered in this discussion is the notion of an ensemble company. There are independent artists within the community, including all of the names mentioned above, with whom I seek and to whom I offer a long term commitment. I think this helps those artists remain in Richmond (everyone likes a sense of security), and it helps us develop a loose knit ensemble company at Barksdale and Theatre IV that enables us to create better theatre.

Again, I'm not trying to "defend" casting decisions or the casting process. Things are as they are; different people will have different opinions. No "defense" is offered or needed. I'm trying to share with you what goes on in my head and behind the door of my office as the leadership of Barksdale works hard to create a nationally recognized, professional, resident theatre here in Central Virginia.

Sharing perspectives is a good thing. I greatly appreciate all those who share their perspectives with me.

Thanks.

--Bruce Miller

The Third Time is Charming

Posted by Bruce Miller
Has any theatre in Richmond ever produced three iterations (the original plus two sequels) of any show before? That’s what we’re about to do with Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming, the final of three bluegrass gospel musicals conceived by Alan Bailey and written by Connie Ray, all featuring a multi-talented fictional family church band from the 1940s—the Sanders Family.

I know that the Mill has produced umpteen annual sequels to their Drifty the Snowman holiday musical for children and families. And the Mill has also done the first two of the Sanders Family shows: Smoke on the Mountain and Sanders Family Christmas. Also, the Mill did land office business, I’m told, with Forever Plaid followed by Plaid Tidings, and Greater Tuna followed by A Tuna Christmas.

But can anyone think of a Richmond professional theatre that’s done THREE published (not original), inter-connected shows for adult audiences?

I’m not trying to start a trend. In general, I think sequels in theatre are a little silly. You won’t find us following our revival of Nunsense with any of its eight siblings: Nunsense 2: The Second Coming, Sister Amnesia’s Country Western Nunsense Jamboree, Nuncrackers: The Nunsense Christmas Musical, Meshuggah-Nuns!, Nunsensations: The Nunsense Vegas Revue, Nunsense A-Men (with an all-monk cast), Nunset Blvd (I can only imagine), and Sister Robert Anne's Cabaret Class. (These last three additions had previously escaped my notice and were provided to me by Billy Christopher Maupin.)

I’m not making this stuff up. Those are real sequels, produced somewhere, adored by millions.

Anyway, I LOVE the three Sanders Family shows (and please authors, let it remain only three), because they take me back to my rural Mennonite roots, they’re filled with wonderful characters and terrific music. Luckily for us, we have an exemplary cast that can act the roles, sing the songs, and play 22 different instruments between them.

It's a bluegrass concert fit to beat the band.

Drew Perkins (Burl, the Dad) plays guitar, fiddle, mandolin, banjo and ukulele. He also serves as music director. Kelly Kennedy (stepping into the Vera / Mama role previously filled by Julie Fulcher) plays guitar, piano, harmonium, accordion and spoons. Eric Williams (Uncle Stanley) makes merry on guitar, bass, harmonica and triangle.

Among the younger generation, Emily plays Denise (the female half of the twins). She also plays guitar, harp, mountain dulcimer, washboard, piano, bass, limberjack and tambourine. The male half of the twins (Dennis) is played by David Janeski, as are the guitar, bass, mandolin, limberjack and shaker. Billy Christopher Maupin, when he’s not involved in one of the 287 other theatre ventures that currently fill his dance card, plays Rev. Oglethorpe, who cuts loose on piano, bass and the occasional percussive noisemaker.

And then there’s Aly Wepplo. Aly performs ASL (American Sign Language)—a little less in this show than in the previous two—and plays some traditional and unique percussion instruments: tambourine, shaker, triangle, telephone bell, tugglaphone and wend-o-wheel. She also plays the trumpet. In the show, Aly portrays sister June, the wife of Billy Christopher Maupin’s character. In real life, Aly is married to David Janeski. They fell in love during the run of Smoke on the Mountain, and got engaged, in front of a live audience, following a performance of Sanders Family Christmas.

If you haven’t seen any of the previous Sanders Family musicals, I hope you’ll join us for Smoke … Homecoming. It’s funny, tuneful, and guaranteed to cheer your spirit.

It certainly cheers mine.

--Bruce Miller

A Smile a Day Keeps the Mortician Away

Posted by Bruce Miller
New research from Wayne State University in Detroit indicates that those who are most likely to be photographed with a big grin on their face can count on living a longer life.

Kathleen Doheny reports in HealthDay News that scientists have completed a study involving the evaluation of photographs of 230 Major League Baseball players, all of whom began their careers prior to 1950. The size and intensity of each ball player's smile was rated on a scale from nonexistent to robust. "People who had the most intense smiles lived the longest," said Ernest L. Abel, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and psychology at Wayne State.

"The more intense smile, we infer, indicates an underlying happiness, if you will, a more positive attitude," he said. "It's hard to fake an intense smile."

As of June 1, 2009, all but 46 of the 230 players had died. On average, the longevity of the non-smilers was 72.9 years, 75 years for the partial smilers, and 79.9 years for the big smilers. The big smilers had what is known as a Duchenne smile, named after the French neurologist who discovered it. Cheeks and the corners of the mouth are raised, and crows-feet wrinkles appear around the eyes.

To get your Duchenne smile (and the extended lifespan that comes with it), we invite you to come see Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, opening this Friday at Barksdale Theatre at Willow Lawn, starring Joe Inscoe, Scott Wichmann and Carolyn Meade.

Then you can keep smiling with Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming, the bluegrass gospel musical, starring Drew Perkins, Kelly Kennedy, Aly Wepplo, David Janeski, Emily Cole, Billy Christopher Maupin, and Eric Williams. Smoke ... Homecoming is Part III in the Sanders Family trilogy, and it opens the following Friday at Barksdale Theatre at Hanover Tavern.

I can think of few more enjoyable ways to get crows-feet wrinkles to appear around your eyes. Hope to see you at the theatre!

--Bruce Miller

Please Attend the Holiday Cabaret!

Posted by Bruce Miller
Whether you are one of Greater Richmond's theatre artists, theatre attendees, or a blog reader sympathetic to theatre in general, I hope you will join us this holiday season in our vital efforts to raise money for the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund. The RTAF is an endowment fund managed by the Community Foundation and the Richmond Alliance of Professional Theatres.

Our annual Home for the Holidays benefit cabaret begins this coming Sunday evening, Dec 14 at 7 pm; with subsequent performances at 7 pm on Tuesday Dec 16; 11 pm on Saturday Dec 20; 7 pm on Sunday Dec 21; and 7 pm on Monday Dec 22.

Nineteen of Central Virginia's best musical theatre performers--including Larry Cook, Corey Davis, Georgia Farmer, Jan Guarino, Robin Harris-Jones, Michael Hawke, Kelly Kennedy, Lauren Leinhaas Cook, Katrinah Lewis, Jason Marks, Billy Christopher Maupin, Robyn O'Neill, Derek Phipps, Maggie Roop, Janine Serresseque, Angela Shipley, Debra Wagoner, Chloe Williams, and Tony Williams on piano--are volunteering their time and talent to raise money for the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund.

This important charity provides emergency financial assistance to members of our own community when, through no fault of their own, they face impossible financial challenges and need our help.

I believe in the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund with all my heart. I have known its recipients--the challenges they faced before receiving help and the great joy they experienced when they realized that someone actually cared enough to assist them during their time of crisis.

I hope each and every one of you will make a point to attend one of the cabaret performances this season. I hope you will twist the arms of all your friends, relatives and neighbors. We really need to sell tickets if this once-a-year fundraiser is to be a success.

I've attended every previous performance of the cabarets, and I can assure you that they are lots of fun.

Regular tickets are $25 each. Barksdale and Theatre IV subscriber tickets are $20 each. All of you who are active members of the Richmond theatre community can reserve tickets for whatever size contribution you can afford, no questions asked.

The box office will list these pay-what-you-will tickets as comps, and you can donate whatever works with your budget. 100% of your contribution will go to increase the principal of the Fund. The Fund currently stands at approximately $21,000, and yields approximately $1,000 in emergency relief each year. Over time, we'd like to increase the Fund's principal about tenfold. The important thing is to support your friends and colleagues by attending and making whatever contribution is within your means.

It's also important to make reservations, so that we know how many people to expect.

Please help us spread the word. I honestly can't understand why every performance isn't sold out. All performances are held in the Barksdale Willow Lawn lobby, and all seating is cabaret style at tables. The bar is open throughout the event.

I count on seeing you and all of your friends there.

Thanks. Happy Holidays!

--Bruce Miller

Coffee & Conversations for Evening Viewing

Posted by Bruce Miller
Rostov’s Coffee & Conversations is a weekday talkback event in which theatre enthusiasts meet in Barksdale’s Willow Lawn lobby on the second Tuesday of each month (October through July) to participate in a panel discussion with some of our community’s leading theatre artists. Working folks who can’t make it to these 9:30 a.m. programs frequently ask if we can repeat them in the evening. We're attempting to do so. Until then, we will broadcast the discussions on YouTube and provide links to these snippets on this blog.

The following links will connect you to the Coffee & Conversations event that was a part of our recent Sarah Ruhl Festival. Steve Perigard, associate artistic director of Barksdale and director of The Clean House, moderates. The panel is comprised of Rusty Wilson (director of Eurydice at the Firehouse Theatre Project), Laine Satterfield (Eurydice in Eurydice at the Firehouse), Kelly Kennedy (Lane in The Clean House at Barksdale), and Bianca Bryan (Matilde in The Clean House at Barksdale).

The ancestry of Bianca Bryan is discussed in one of these video snippets. The full story isn’t included on the tape. Bianca is of Chilean ancestry on her mother’s side. She was born in South Africa and spent her earliest years in the Azure Islands, where Portuguese is the native language. As she mentions in the video, most of her childhood was spent in Argentina, where she became fluent in Spanish.

We hope you enjoy watching these selections from our October Coffee & Conversations event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7YS3TjP4LU – in which Steve asks the panelists if this is their first Sarah Ruhl experience, and invites discussion regarding Ms Ruhl’s qualities as a playwright

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrWPqR49V8M – in which Steve prompts a discussion of the difference between reading Ms Ruhl's plays and playing and/or seeing them, and Bianca launches a sidebar discussion of Ms Ruhl’s stage directions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDjVfUXSZ0U – in which Steve mentions reading that Sarah Ruhl hopes to create ordinary characters who say exceptional things and exceptional characters who say ordinary things, leading into a discussion of the joke in Portuguese that opens The Clean House

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L7N-7ZRsFM – in which the panelists respond to audience questions about language, design and bashert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMcMkEUsCYo – in which the panelists engage in further discussion of language, building relationships between characters, and managing real life relationships among theatre artists

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E21JMXHA8j0 – in which Kelly discusses developing her character (Lane in The Clean House), and the group discusses Ms Ruhl’s use of silence, imagery and punctuation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM03ebxGawI – in which a question from the audience prompts a discussion of the technical aspects of Eurydice and The Clean House

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76Q4gBEVmHk – in which Rusty discusses an email communication between Joe Inscoe (the actor who played Eurydice’s Father) and Ms Ruhl

December’s Coffee & Conversation program will feature Eric Williams (Uncle Stanley in Sanders Family Christmas) interviewing Scotty Wichmann (actor) and John Moon (director) about This Wonderful Life.

Hope to see you at the theatre!

--Bruce Miller (with IT help from Brad Tuggle)

Our First Review for "The Clean House"

Posted by Bruce Miller

We welcome Julinda Lewis to the growing fold of Richmond theatre critics. She wrote a complimentary review for The Clean House in this morning’s T-D (more about that in a moment). Ms Lewis has been reviewing dance in Richmond for four or five years now, and she’s critiqued other theatrical shows and companies over the last 18 months, including one show at Theatre IV. This is her first review of a Barksdale production, and we’re pleased to be working with her.

Ms Lewis is director of the Ayinde2 Children and Ayinde2 Youth Dance Ministries at St Paul’s Baptist Church in Richmond. Prior to moving to Richmond, she was the founding director of the Spiritual Walking Liturgical Dancers at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY, where she grew up and studied dance with George Faison, Fred Benjamin, Eleo Pomare, Maurice Hines and Pepsi Bethel. She also studied with the Dance Theatre of Harlem.

Ms Lewis holds BS and MA degrees in Dance and Dance Education from NYU’s School of Education, Health, Nursing and Arts Professions. She has been a dance writer and critic for more than 25 years. She is the author of a young adult biography, Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance, and editor of Black Choreographers Moving Towards the 21st Century, which has been used as a textbook in dance programs throughout the nation.

Ms Lewis is enrolled in the PhD in Education program at VCU. Her dissertation examines the needs and perspectives of gifted performing arts students. She is currently a teacher with the SPACE Program (Special Program for Academic and Creative Excellence) with Richmond Public Schools, and a frequent contributor to Dance and Pointe magazines. Just like her esteemed T-D colleague, Susan Haubenstock, Ms Lewis works as a “Special Correspondent” for the Times-Dispatch.

Here are the quotes we'll be pulling and publishing from her glowing review of The Clean House:

“Perfect!
Free-Spirited, Romantic Comedy
Vivacious, Mystical, Defies Convention
The best tantrum ever seen on a stage!
An Analogy for Love ~ Poignant ~ Beautifully Designed
Everyone is Laughing!”

--Julinda Lewis, Richmond Times-Dispatch

We’re so proud of this beautiful production of a great play by Sarah Ruhl, and honored to be partnering with the Firehouse on the Sara Ruhl Festival. If you haven’t made your reservations yet to see The Clean House at Barksdale and Euridice at the Firehouse, I hope you’ll call the box office today at 282-2620.

See you at the theatre!

(The Jay Paul photos seen above picture the following outstanding cast members: [top left] Bianca Bryan and Robin Arthur, [top right] Kelly Kennedy, [mid left] Bianca Bryan and Robin Arthur, [mid right] John Moon and Robin Arthur, [lower left] Jan Guarino, [lower center] Jan Guarino and Bianca Bryan.)

--Bruce Miller