Behind the Scenes with An Appalachian Summer Festival | By Keith Martin

PARSONS DANCE - ZOEY ANDERSON - PHOTO BY TRAVIS MAGEE 2020 BRIAN STOKES MITCHELL

An Appalachian Summer Festival 2021

Behind the Scenes Personnel Deserve Recognition This Season

By Keith Martin

Since 1984, Appalachian State University in Boone has provided an incredible gift to local residents and visitors to our region: AN APPALACHIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL (AASF).

Consistently listed as one of the top destinations in the southeast with no fewer than 28 events from July 2 to 31, 2021, this “month-long whirlwind of music, dance, theatre, visual arts and film programming has emerged as one of the nation’s leading regional arts festivals,” bringing over 27,000 people to the High Country each summer to experience world-class entertainment.

For all but ten of those 37 years, AASF has been guided in various capacities by the steadying hand of Denise Ringler, the Director of Arts Engagement and Cultural Resources at Appalachian. In announcing the upcoming season, Ringler said, “Feedback from our audiences and supporters in recent months has been tremendously helpful in determining how best to safely gather and celebrate the festival’s broad array of arts programming, while also creating the safe and protected atmosphere they are seeking.”

Proactively addressing the concerns that audience members might have about returning to AASF in the aftermath of the pandemic, Ringler assured patrons by saying, “Measures such as reduced capacity, socially distanced pod seating, enhanced cleaning protocols in our venues, elimination of intermissions and indoor concessions, touch-free ticketing, and digital communications are all designed to provide the health and safety assurances that are consistent with the university’s protocols, and which are so important to our audiences.”

Festival Advisory Board Chair Kent Tarbutton is ecstatic about the upcoming season: “I could not be more excited to join the 2021 Appalachian Summer Festival and celebrate getting back together with friends and family at these cherished annual artistic events. The arts at the Turchin Center, live performances of music, dance, theater, and film bring us back together this summer. There is nothing like the camaraderie and fellowship of gathering safely once again in outdoor and indoor venues with limited seating to enjoy the fabulous artists and programing her team has put together for the whole month of July.”

The 28 performances and exhibitions this summer will consist of 17 live/ in-person events, 11 all-virtual programs, and seven hybrid activities that will combine live and virtual options. It is a model of planning and organization about which AASF patrons should be exceedingly grateful.

Lynn Brenner Eisenberg is Past Chair of Festival Advisory Board and raved about AASF during a Memorial Day weekend social gathering: “I can’t say enough about the inexhaustible Denise Ringler and her talented team. They are unsung heroes of AASF who have worked mightily throughout the course of this pandemic, first to pull off last summer’s remarkable virtual season and, more recently, to piece together the Rubik’s cube that is the upcoming slate of events for 2021. Most noteworthy is the incredible effort it took to replace a major program artist on very short notice, a daunting task that they pulled off with aplomb and professionalism. We are so lucky to have them leading our festival.”

Tarbutton agreed, saying, “We are grateful for the Appalachian team and their enduring love of the arts that adds inspiration, joy, and wonder to life each summer in these Blue Ridge Mountains.”

The season will be staged across two outdoor venues, including Kidd Brewer Stadium and the State Farm Road Concert

SARAH JONES, PHOTO BY KENNETH GOLDBERG MEGAN HILTY

Lot, a university-owned space adjacent to the Boone Greenway Trail, which will be outfitted as an outdoor theatrical stage with pod seating to ensure a fun, festive and safe concert setting. The Schaefer Center will host several limited-attendance events, including performances that offer two different show times and livestream options..

AASF 2021 will kick off on July 2 with their Summer Exhibition Celebration and conclude on July 31 with the Charleston, SC-based band Ranky Tanky. In between, the Schaefer Popular Series will include comedienne and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me favorite Paula Poundstone on July 3, and the “wildly popular Americana band” Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit performing live at Kidd Brewer Stadium on July 10.

Tony Award-winner Alan Cumming and NPR’s Ari Shapiro team up for Och & Oy! A Considered Cabaret on July 24, along with Tony and Obie Awardwinning playwright and performer Sarah Jones, most notable for the multi-character, one-person shows for which she has world-class been called “a master of the genre” on July 29. The newly-added event to which Eisenberg alluded previously is a return engagement by Brian Stokes Mitchell, performing with Megan Hilty on July 17. Mitchell is a four-time Tony nominee for Man of La Mancha, King Hedley II, Ragtime, and Kiss Me, Kate, for which he won the Tony Award. While TV audiences will remember him for his appearances in Roots, Trapper John, M.D. and Glee, among others, it is Mitchell’s mellifluous baritone that will wow theatregoers. Hilty starred on the television musical-drama series Smash and, most recently, starred in the Lifetime movie Patsy and Loretta, for which she received a Critics Choice nomination and won a Women’s Image Award for her portrayal of the country music legend Patsy Cline. Her Broadway performances include Glinda the Good Witch in Wicked, creating the role of Doralee Rhodes in 9 to 5 the Musical, and her Tony-nominated turn as Brooke Ashton in Noises Off. The festival’s classical music programming will feature favorites such as the Emerson String Quartet on July 6, Canadian Brass on July 11, Tessa Lark and Michael Thurber on July 16, Tesla Quartet on July 20, Rosen-Schaffel Competition: 10th Anniversary Celebration, featuring Andrew Rene and Morgan Short on July 25, and Julian Gargiulo, “the pianist with the hair,” on July 30. Visual arts programming, a cornerstone of festival programming, will consist of the Summer Exhibition Celebration on July 2, the Educator Workshop on July 9, and the 35th Annual Rosen Sculpture Walk on July 10. The popular Lunch & Learn Series will be enjoyed virtually this season with free events scheduled at 12 noon; the dates and program topics are as follows: July 12,

Where are the birds? Retracing Audubon:

Artwork by Krista Elrick; July 19, Dula-

town: Documentary Film Screening and

Panel Discussion; July 22, Testimony — In-

donesian Lullaby: Surviving the Shoah in

the Netherlands, Dr. Alfred Münzer; and July 26, Ruminations: Cheryl Prisco — From Studio to Gallery. A festival favorite, Parsons Dance, returns to Boone for an evening of contemporary dance on July 8 immediately following the successful conclusion of their New York season at the famed Joyce Theatre. The North Carolina Black Repertory Company returns for their fourth summer with their production of Freedom Summer on July 15. That production will be preceded on July 13 with a “Meet the Artist” program featuring Artistic Director Jackie Alexander. The Helene and Stephen Weicholz Global Film Series will again offer awardwinning international film programming, along with compelling pre-film lectures providing a historical context for films in the series, as well as interesting background about the making of each film. The 2021 line-up includes Quo Vidis, Aida? on July 7, The Road to Mandalay on July 14, Transit on July 21, and Complicity on July 28. Tickets for festival events are available online and at the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts box office. For more information, visit www.appsummer.org or call the box office at 828-262-4046.

AASF Stars Give Back By Playing Forward

By Keith Martin

Gossip magazines and pseudo-entertainment programs attract readers and viewers with tidbits, rumors, and innuendo about stars of stage and screen who they frequently portray as “divas” or “prima-damn-donnas” for their behindthe-scenes, backstage, or off-camera antics. While this might be true for a very small percentage of the celebrities they cover, it is anything but the case with the kind and generous artists who will grace the stages of AASF this summer.

Please allow me to cite a few examples from personal experience to illustrate this point.

Appalachian State University owns a beautiful Loft on the lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, located in the Flat Iron district just a short walk from Madison Park and just two subway stops away from Times Square. It can accommodate 20 students and four faculty, plus a resident director who serves as a concierge to events and activities in “The Big Apple.” The Department of Theatre and Dance utilizes this tremendous asset for as many as four week-long trips for students in their program.

On January 6, 2016, graduating theatre students on their annual senior trip attended a Broadway performance of Michael Frayn’s comic farce Noises Off! produced by the Roundabout Theatre Company and featuring an Appalachian graduate, David Furr, in the cast. The students knew that David would be meeting them after the final curtain call, but he surprised all of us by inviting the entire cast to join him for an extended conversation. Among Furr’s fellow co-stars was Megan Hilty of television’s Smash. In fact, she was the first to arrive and the last to leave the Q&A session, providing words of wisdom, advice, and the lessons learned from her personal journey to our students, posing for pictures, signing Playbills, and continuing the conversation privately with young actresses in the group while providing encouragement to their professional aspirations. Coincidentally, both Furr and Hilty would receive Tony Award nominations that season for their respective roles in Noises Off!

Appalachian dance students snapped up all of the $10 partial-view seats in the front row of the Joyce Theatre in Chelsea in May 2018 to see a performance by Parsons Dance. A random “is there any chance to meet you” request via the Joyce resulted in an immediate response from Co-Founder and Artistic Director David Parsons himself. He was incredibly gracious to invite our dance students not only to observe company class, but encouraged them to dress out and TAKE class with his professional artists before their performance; Parsons even arranged for his dancers to meet with our students for an informative and inspirational post show discussion.

CML asked him about their upcoming AASF performance: “Returning to perform at An Appalachian Summer Festival will be a highlight of this summer’s schedule,” said Parsons. “Boone is a beautiful community to visit, the audiences are enthusiastic and knowledgeable about dance, and the Festival team is a joy with whom to work. We are thrilled to be going back.”

Brian Stokes Mitchell was one of the most prominent Broadway stars to be diagnosed with COVID-19, which was announced on April 1, 2020. After his recovery, he sang nightly from a window of his Upper West Side apartment in Manhattan to thank first responders and medical workers. It was a ritual widely reported in the media as his rendition of “The Impossible Dream” from Man of La Mancha became an anthem for a city struggling during the pandemic and hoping for the effective vaccine that was soon to follow. In 2016, Mitchell was awarded his second Tony Award, the prestigious Isabelle Stevenson Award, for his charitable work with The Actors Fund. That same year, “Stokes” was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame.

Mitchell is married to actress Allyson Tucker who met with Appalachian theatre students in January 2019 in her role as a councilor on the governing body of Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers. She could not have been more gracious in patiently explaining the complexities of performing arts unions, the pros and cons of membership, collective bargaining agreements, and “right to work states,” all while providing invaluable career advice.

So, as you watch these artists perform onstage at AASF, remember to applaud their altruism when not in the limelight as they unselfishly give back to their beloved art forms by playing forward to the next generation of theatre and dance artists.

PARSONS DANCE, PHOTO BY LOIS GREENFIELD

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