ABINGDON, Va. -- Barter Theatre is proud to announce the winners of its Ninth Annual Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights (AFPP) that was held July 27-Aug. 9 during the 2009 Virginia Highlands Festival.
-- This year's top honors went to Deborah Brevoort's The Blue Sky Boys, a wacky and wonderful behind-the-scenes look at the men responsible for sending Americans to the moon. A host of unlikely characters help the researchers to achieve dominance in outer space in this thrilling adventure full of surprises.
-- Second place was awarded to Catherine Bush's Where Trouble Sleeps. Both the first and second place winners will receive a full production during Barter Theatre's 2010 season.
-- Third place was awarded to A Southern Exposure by Kelley Kingston-Strayer. This play will receive a mini-production in next year's festival.
Other finalists include Swamp Gas and Shallow Feelings by Jack Eric Williams and Randy Buck, Kindred Spirits by Rick Whelan and Losing Patients by Duke Ernsberger and Virginia Cate.
Barter's Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights give Appalachian playwrights and stories a national platform from which to launch their work, celebrate Appalachian stories and culture and develop new plays for future production by Barter Theatre.
Playwrights Duke Ernsberger and Virginia Cate as well as Catherine Bush have had great success with Barter's AFPP through their festival-winning plays, including Don't Cry for Me, Margaret Mitchell and The Other Side of the Mountain, which were fully produced by Barter and have gone on to enjoy successful productions at various theatres around the country.
Perhaps the most successful and recognizable shows to emerge from Barter's AFPP are Ron Osborne's First Baptist of Ivy Gap and two musicals, Keep on the Sunny Side: the Songs and Story of the Original Carter Family and Man of Constant Sorrow, the show that pays tribute to the careers of the Stanley brothers, both written by local physician Douglas Pote. These three plays have toured nationally and have been produced at theatres around the country. Barter's original cast recordings, which have been distributed internationally, have brought the attention of these works to countless others.
Barter's AFPP is an annual event at Barter Theatre held concurrently with the Virginia Highlands Festival during the first two weeks in August. AFPP is sponsored by Dominion. For more information on submitting plays, please contact Festival Director Nick Piper at (276) 619-3316 or visit our Web site at www.bartertheatre.com/festival.
