The 2009 Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival, presented by Endstation Theatre and hosted by Sweet Briar College, where the company is in residence, opens Friday, June 12 with an encore run of “The Bluest Water: A Hurricane Camille Story.”
“The Bluest Water” premiered at the inaugural festival in 2008 and is a memory play about the aftermath of the hurricane that devastated Nelson County in 1969. The play was so popular with the local community – Nelson County is just up the road from the College – that additional performances were added, all of which sold out.
Endstation is reprising “The Bluest Water,” in part because of its popularity and because this summer marks the 40th anniversary of Hurricane Camille, which killed dozens of Nelson County residents.
“The Bluest Water” will run June 12 through 28, with the exception of June 15 and 16 and June 22 and 23, at Babcock Fine Arts Center’s Murchison Lane Auditorium. Shows begin at 7 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. on Sundays.
The second offering in this year’s festival is William Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The performance will be staged outdoors on the dell between Babcock Fine Arts Center and Sweet Briar House. Playgoers are encouraged to bring a picnic to enjoy during the show.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” will be presented at 7 p.m. on July 7, 9, 11, 16, 18, 19, 21, 23, 25 and 26.
Rounding out the 2009 program is “My Brother’s Knife: A Madison Heights Odyssey,” which opens Friday, July 10 in Murchison Lane Auditorium.
“My Brother’s Knife,” which makes its debut at the festival, is the story of a Monacan Indian man, Wayne, whose chance meeting with a dysfunctional police officer sends him on a journey during which he must address his dark past.
Described by Endstation Theatre director Geoff Kershner as a “southern gothic” play, “My Brother’s Knife” was written by Joshua Mikel, who acted two years ago in Endstation’s productions of “The Tell Tale Heart” and “The Mind of Poe.”
The play was originally set in Mikel’s home state of Georgia and involved a Cherokee Indian main character. After discussions with Kershner, however, Mikel decided to customize the story and characters for Amherst County, Va., and Endstation Theatre.
“When I began writing the piece, the protagonist, Wayne Howling Wind, was a Cherokee Indian,” Mikel said. “I am a big fan of the author Sherman Alexie, and like many of his characters, I wanted Wayne to have an attachment to a heritage that he was, on the whole, wildly unfamiliar with.
“When we changed the location of the piece, Cherokee could have still worked, but Geoff turned me on to the idea of making Wayne a Monacan Indian, a tribe I was ironically and fittingly unfamiliar with.”
Since that time, Mikel has researched Monacan history and the stereotypes and prejudices experienced by the Monacans and other American Indians. He and Kershner also plan to meet with local Monacans in June to talk about the “real meat of these issues,” a process that should further enrich the play’s characters and themes.
“I think there are many Americans, including myself, who have very vague ideas of what it means to be an Indian in the modern day,” Mikel said. “A history that is so tied to the earth and modest living certainly has volatile run-ins with modern American life.
“There are certainly many people who, for one reason or another, harbor unreasonable distrust or dislike for the Monacan tribe, perhaps racism, perhaps not. That is also a theme I look to investigate. There is plenty of work to do on this front.”
“My Brother’s Knife” will be performed at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 12 and at 7 p.m. on July 14, 15, 17, 22 and 24.
Tickets for the Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival are $12 each, or $35 for all three plays, and can be purchased via www.lynchburgtickets.com. For more information, visit Endstation Theatre’s Web site (http://www.endstationtheatre.org/).
Stay, play and dinner packages are available for select performance nights. Packages include a night’s lodging at the Florence Elston Inn, dinner for two and two play tickets. Packages for all three plays also are available, as are “commuter” deals, which include dinner and play tickets. Prices range from $60 to $375, plus tax.
For reservations or more information, call the Florence Elston Inn & Conference Center at (434) 381-6207.
More specific information on packages (in case you need it for a “If You’re Going” type thing):
Packages include a night’s lodging at the Florence Elston Inn, dinner for two and two tickets for the play of your choice for $135, plus tax. A two-person package for all three plays is available for $375, plus tax.
“Commuter” packages, which include play tickets and dinner for two, are available for $60 for one performance or $165 for all three.
Dinner — 11:30 a.m. brunch on Sundays and 5:30 p.m. on weekdays —includes a pre-fixed menu, including salad, entrée, desert, wine, tea and coffee.
“The Bluest Water” packages are available for Sunday, June 14 and Thursday, June 18 and reservations must be made by Sunday, May 17.
“My Brother’s Knife” packages are available for Sunday, July 12; Tuesday, July 14; and Wednesday, July 15. “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” packages are available for Sunday, July 19 and Sunday, July 26.
Reservations for “My Brother’s Knife” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” packages must be made by Monday, June 15.
[...] with the founding of Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival. They also began performing the original The Bluest Water: A Hurricane Camille Story, a play that will be reprised this summer. It will be the first of three productions for the Blue [...]