The folks at Four County Players spent Saturday looking back at 50 years of community theater memories — and the following day looking to the future.
The 50th Birthday Party, filled with reminiscences and performances, took place June 17 at Four County’s home stage in Barboursville. And on June 18, an open house gave visitors a chance to check out the costume shop, backstage areas and other places where the magic happens.
“It’s a family reunion,” said Edward Warwick White. “That’s the great thing about theater: There are so many stories, and sometimes the stories about the shenanigans are better than the stories being told on stage.”
Plenty of those stories reflect the tenacity of Four County founders Lillian More and Bill Thomas, who started the group in January 1973 during a gathering at Morse’s home with eight teammates who pooled their resources to collect $70 to get started. Case in point: The reason actors had to crawl to get backstage during the theater’s first production in its new home, “The Stingy Mr. Pennypincher,” directed by Thomas.
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Morse had secured permission from Orange County to reopen the vacant former Barboursville High School auditorium, which had been used for storage. There hadn’t been time to clear out and repair everything, so sets for “The Stingy Mr. Pennypincher” were built on top of a furnace that had been left on the auditorium’s stage. Actors who needed to get backstage had to shimmy their way over the old furnace.
Along the way, Four County launched Shakespeare at the Ruins, which offered outdoor summer productions in the ruins of Gov. James Barbour’s mansion on the Barboursville Vineyards grounds. Shakespeare’s plays were presented there from 1990 to 2006 before renovations to the site began. The series offered an indoor production in 2007 and returned to the ruins with productions in 2020 and 2022.
The Cellar space, added in 2009, offers options for presenting smaller shows.
Many past and present performers took the stage on June 17 to share stories and songs. Among them were Elaine Brown, Doug Schneider, Warwick White, Geri Carlson Sauls, Lydia Underwood Horan, Fran Smith, Niki Audibert, Kim Dukes, Dan Stern, Clint Estes, Wendy Novicoff, Bob Davis, Kristen Franklin Heiderstadt, Stephanie Finn and Ken Wayne.
Singer-songwriter Terri Allard and several generations of her family were also on stage, including dad Bill Allard, Warwick White said, adding, “She grew up on that stage.” Family power has been a tradition, with children, teens, parents and grandparents pitching in backstage and in the spotlight. Several marriages over the years have resulted from romances that bloomed during productions.
June 17’s event also included memorial time to remember late Four County members who made a difference on the stage and behind the scenes, including founders Morse and Thomas, longtime box office manager Audrey Briggs, Gene Frisch, Roger Prine and “all these folks who were staples in our formative years,” Warwick White said. Not to be forgotten are “our two canine friends who played Sandy in ‘Annie’ over the years,” he said.
Reflecting on the people who helped the theater thrive reminds Warwick White of a sentimental line from Stephen Sondheim’s musical “Into the Woods” that ends with “no one leaves for good.”
The open house on June 18 gave community members a chance to get a behind-the-scenes look at their theater company. Just be aware that the theater bug can bite at any time; if it does, there will be plenty of Four County folks on hand who can answer questions about how to get involved in the scene shop, backstage crews and casts.
“We encourage everyone to come,” Warwick White said. “It’s a really great way to meet people and find out what makes it so special.”
The upcoming 51st season will offer plenty of ways to get involved. The productions include:
■ Aug. 4-20 on the Mainstage: “Urinetown,” with director Anna Grey Hogan, music director Kimberly Souther and choreographer Geri Carlson Sauls.
■ Sept. 29-Oct. 15 in the Cellar: “Constellations” with director Karen M. Dabney.
■ Nov. 17-Dec. 17 on the Mainstage: “A Christmas Carol” with director John Holdren.
■ Feb. 2-11, 2024, in the Cellar: “Zink: The Myth, the Legend, the Zebra” with director Steven Reid.
■ March 8-31 on the Mainstage: “Anything Goes” with director/choreographer Geri Carlson Sauls.
■ May 3-19 in the Cellar: “Motherhood Out Loud” with director Devynn Thomas.