Welcome to the Hart County Community Theatre’s online experience! Our theatre is located in Hartwell, Georgia at 83 Depot Street and is currently in the midst of our 2008-2009 season…. and is also in the midst of establishing our online presence at Facebook and Myspace. (If you are tech savvy and have the time lol, please join us at both sites! If you are busy, barely tolerate your computer, and loathe online communities lol… well, just stick with us here for news of our current season. )
Our most recent production was Tellebration. This weekend (Sunday) Hartwell hosted both local and out-of-town storytellers under one roof…. and in the space of a few hours, that roof was raised, then slammed back down again! (The theatre is still smoking…) Okay, maybe “it” didn’t suffer so, but thanks to the talents of Sara Lesseur, Walter Gordon, Pam Miller, Jean Smith, Victoria Young, Ruth and Sarah Ann Skelton, Gail Anne Gold, and Mary Anne Huggins… well, a lot of good things went down!
Jean Smith was the emcee and she did a fantastic job of joking around with each teller and giving the audience background on these interesting people. Jean even coaxed Sarah Ann Skelton into doing an impromptu duet/riff on the Shel Silverstein poem, The Unicorn, and for those ignorant of the plot, it’s an unique take on the Noah’s Ark story. Interestingly enough, I googled the name of the poem (because I’m remembering Tellebration from the haze of “um… and then what happened?” a day later), and Google tells me that an Irish Band had a big hit with the Unicorn poem. Now you Generation X-Y-Z myspacers, if you’re reading this, I think you ought to give up the name of that band as I’d like to hear that song! Don’t shame your generation! Impress me with your knowledge and direct me toward the appropriate Youtube category! Sadly I am of Generation B, so unless it’s the Clancy Brothers, I’m not going to be of much help. (I’m so old I couldn’t even stay up long to enough to see how River Dance came out. )
But enough about me…. So let’s get back to Ruth Skelton and her granddaughter, Sarah Ann Skelton. (Sarah Ann made her stage debut this spring in “You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown.” She played The Blanket, but was hardly a wet one as she had a big dance scene with Linus, and she also kept an inexperienced stage manager (me!) happy backstage… ) The pair played a farmer and his daughter on a mysterious errand, and I’m not sure if this is a real genre, but it was like watching a suspense fable! Something was going on… and it all came together at the end. It was fun to get your suspense on, to wonder and then bam! The story’s over, and you’re staring straight at that moral. I love fables because you don’t really know where the crisis is headed, and you’re into the story-situation, and then bam! It’s the end, and your brain goes “Oh yeah!”
Curses! I’ve exceeded my 2 million word quota and I’m not through with Tellebration. Oh well… maybe by the time I’m finished reminiscing, it’ll be time for Tellebration again. I can’t quit though without giving a shout out to Mary Anne Huggins who was in charge of the event. She has really worked to make storytelling a fixture in Hart County. Thanks Mary Anne for a wonderful Sunday afternoon! I’m definitely going to put Tellebration on my calendar from now on!
Margaret O’Neal
Sometime Stage Manager/Secretary on HCCT Board