Greetings from Nelson County and the Hamner Theater and Happy Labor Day!
Summer is now officially nearly over. Thank goodness for the rain and here's hoping for more...as long as the levees hold...

Coming Sat., Sept. 13 in the cabaret - MOLIMO - High-energy topical folk rockers from Nelson County:
"we play songs that call us to engagement to community - to stand against the madness......stand with us!"

Seems like we may be entering mad times indeed - come to the cabaret!
Doors open at 6:30, show starts at 7:30. See the website - www.thehamnertheater.com - for details about the performers and the menu.

Due to rising prices all over we have had to raise our cabaret ticket prices as well, but food and a live show for $20.00 is still a deal! Couples are $35.00 in advance, $20.00 per person at the door.

Opening Thurs., Sept. 18, Peter Coy's award-winning play A House in the Country. Originally performed as part of the Wintergreen Performing Arts Festival in a tent, the play is being re-imagined for the theater. Of the 2000 production in DC, Jonathan Padget of Metro Weekly wrote, "With a play about infidelity, obsession, and abuse, it's hard to imagine leaving the theater in better spirits than when you came in. Yet that's exactly what happens. In addition to the usual feeling of relief after a good catharsis, the play inspires nothing less than joy, hope, and awe." (And this play is NOT for children!)

Free preview Weds., Sept. 17, opening night Thurs., Sept. 18 followed by a champagne reception with the cast. Performances Thurs. - Sat. at 7:30 with one matinee on Sun., Sept. 21 at 2:00pm. Tickets are still a very affordable $10.00 and reservations may be made by calling 361-1999.

Richard III, the first production of the Nelson County Shakespeare Festival, has been postponed until Feb. due to reasons beyond our control! Watch for details...

We hope to see you down at the Hamner in these early fall days - the leaves are lovely and the view spectacular. And as always, we are ready to offer classes and start an improv troupe if there is interest - let us know! Email info@thehamnertheater.com and tell us what you want.

Cheers,
Boomie

Boomie Pedersen
Co-Artistic Director
The Hamner Theater
434-361-1999
www.thehamnertheater.com

Dear Friends of the Hamner Theater,

Summer is rapidly drawing to a far too early close, schools open next week, the days will grow shorter and then it will be Christmas. But we are offering one last summer gasp, something a little different, a special event to benefit the newly formed Skate Nelson.

Saturday, August 23, a Community Cabaret, featuring Andy Waldeck (of Earth to Andy) and Jenn Rhubright (of Jive Katze, and Clare Quilty), T G'sus, tha street savior, Jamie Dyer (of the Hogwaller Ramblers), jugglers, MC Richard Averitt and a special showing of the Argyle Team's latest video, Pid Geon Babylon. The Black Cat-sponsored skate team will be on hand in case anyone has questions about skateboarding, and there will be raffle items from Freestyle and a custom deck for auction from Black Cat. The ticket price as always includes food, but this time the ticket price is by donation; suggested donation is from $10 - 20, whatever you feel you can afford. Remember, this is a benefit - all proceeds will go to sk8nelson, now a project of the RVCC. The first - and fairly modest goal - is to raise $5000 to install a multi-use surface behind the RVCC. But Tim Gorman - owner, proprietor and vintner of Cardinal Point Vineyard - will be on hand to explain it all to you and may have some plans to show for the ultimate goal, Nelson County's own skatepark. This event is family friendly so please come out and help kick-off the campaign to build a safe environment for all the burgeoning skaters in our community.
Doors open at 6:30, show starts at 7:30; for further info and reservations, please call 434-361-1999.

Coming next in the cabaret on Saturday, September 13 - MOLIMO. And opening Thursday, September 18, A House in the Country. Peter Coy's Helen Hayes award-winning play was done at Wintergreen as part of the Performing Arts Festival and will be restaged here at the theater (it was performed in a tent at WPA!) This production will run through Saturday, September 27. (For more information, visit our website, www.thehamnertheater.com.)

I hope we will see you on the 23rd as we launch our community series; in these critical economic times especially, we non-profits rely even more on the support of our community, so come on out and have a blast doing a good deed!

Cheers,
Boomie

Warm summer greetings from Nelson County!

The DC Fringe Festival was a critical success for Poe & All That Jazz - see the Theater website for links to reviews, blogs and photos - and we are contemplating a celebration of Poe's 200th birthday at the 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Stay tuned for details...

This Sunday, July 27, at 8:15pm there will be a free preview of A House in the Country by Peter Coy - the concert version, a fugue for four voices - at Wintergreen, in the Performance tent off Parking area #2. The show will run Mon., July 28 through Sat., Aug. 2 at 8:15pm. A seminar series with playwright Peter Coy and others will be held on Mon., Weds. and Friday mornings, July 28, 30 and Aug. 1, from 9:30 - 11:45 at Tuckahoe School in Nellysford. This production features the voices of Susan Burke, Chris Patrick, Boomie Pedersen and Bill Williamson, with stage management/assistant direction by Carol Pedersen. There will be a fully staged production of A House in the Country at the Hamner in September.

Plans are well underway for our August Community Cabaret which will be a benefit for Skate Nelson, now a project of the Rockfish Valley Community Center. The evening will feature Pidgeon Babylon, the skate video by the Black Cat Argyle Team, with performances by T G'sus, the street savior and others. This event will be on Sat., August 23; food is included in the ticket donation; doors open at 6:30 and the show will start at 7:30. More details will follow as they unfold...

The Nelson County Shakespeare Festival's inaugural production of Richard III has been cast but there is always room for an extra spear carrier or off stage assistant...if you would like to be involved, please don't hesitate to call - 361-1999. Performance dates for Richard III are Oct. 1 - 12.

Other summer theater offerings include Highschool Musical at Live Arts; As You Like It at Four County Players and coming at PlayOn, Alex Citron's original play, The Flounder. Don't sit home in the air conditioning, get out now and see something live - it will be worth the price of the gas!

Cheers,
Boomie

Boomie Pedersen
Co-Artistic Director
The Hamner Theater
434-361-1999

Greetings from the Hamner Theater,

Things have been humming along as we prepare to take Poe & All That Jazz to DC to the Capital Fringe Festival. Performance details are available on the fringe website - as well as our website.

There are many, many shows to take in - make a weekend of it and see as many as you can fit in. Or, if the trip to DC seems daunting, what with gas at $4.00/gallon, come to the Hamner on Thurs., July 10 and see a special benefit preview of the Poe that will go to Washington. This is a slightly different version than the one you may have seen, restaged for the Forum at the Shakespeare Theatre at the Harman Center. It still features Jon Cobb as Poe, Patti Finn as his mother and all her incarnations, Bob Bennetta on piano and Jim Ryan on bass, and is still an intriguing look into the life and mind of one of America's great creative geniuses, begging the question "where is the line between life and art?"

Poe & All That Jazz - Thurs., July 10 at 7:30, special benefit preview performance - donations gratefully accepted to help offset the expense of the trip to the big city.

Coming on July 14 and 15 at 7pm, auditions for the Nelson County Shakespeare Festival's inaugural production of Richard III. See the website for cast breakdown, adapted script and details. Come with 8 - 10 lines of Shakespeare memorized - preferably from Richard III. Actor/manager Mary Coy spearheads this production which will be done according to original practices...curious? Just show up and have your questions answered.

On Sun., July 27 at 8:15pm we will open the tent - quite literally - for a preview performance of Peter Coy's Helen Hayes award winner, A House in the Country. This production is part of the Wintergreen Performing Arts Summer Festival and will run July 28 - Aug. 2 at 8:15pm. Details are available at www.wintergreenperformingarts.org.

Stay tuned for more information about our Community Cabaret coming on August 23 which will be a benefit for skatenelson. See the Black Cat Argyle Team's skate video Pidgeon Babylon, hear T G'sus, the street savior and more...

It may be heating up outdoors but it is always cool at the Hamner...come and play with us or just come and watch...

Cheers,
Boomie

Boomie Pedersen
Co-Artistic Director
The Hamner Theater
434-361-1999

Greetings from the Hamner Theater,

This Saturday, June 14 in the cabaret - "the Nightingales of Nelson County" - TigerLily. Tickets are going fast, so call for a reservation now if you'd like to come hear the organic sound of this soulful equation of 1 part bass, 3 parts harmony. Original members Carol McAvoy, Donna Hamilton, Gail Epps, are joined by bassist Trey Mitchell. The voices of McAvoy, Hamilton, and Epps blend together in exquisite three-part harmony, now grounded by Mitchell's bass line. Their voices are also supported by acoustic guitar (Gail Epps) and light percussion (Donna Hamilton and Carol McAvoy).

Tickets are $15.00 (still, although like everything else they are going to have to go up soon) and include light fare. And to keep things cool, we will be pouring Tigerlilies. As always, doors open at 6:30 and the show starts at 7:30. Tables for parties of 4 or more may be reserved for ease of seating; otherwise, first come, first served. 434-361-1999 for reservations.

Coming in July:
* AUDITIONS: The first ever Nelson County Shakespeare Festival production of Shakespeare's RICHARD III. Using Elizabethan rehearsal practices like memorizing all your lines by the first rehearsal, actor-manager (another Elizabethan practice) Mary Coy is organizing a production of RICHARD III to be performed at the Hamner Theater as well as in the Great Hall of the RVCC. Auditions will be held at the Hamner Monday and Tuesday, July 14 and 15 at 7pm. Actors should memorize 8-10 lines of Shakespeare from RICHARD III or any other play. There are parts for men, women and some children. Once the play is cast there will be an organizational meeting in late July and then the actors will spend the rest of the summer learning their lines either on their own or in small groups. The company will re-convene on September 7 to stage the play.

* Good Foot Dance Company's third annual Smiling Mountain Dance Intensive at the RVCC, led by Emily Oleson and Matthew Olwell, will hold its annual summer showcase at the Hamner Theater on Friday, July 18. Call 361-1999 for details.

* The Hamner Theater production of Poe & All That Jazz will perform at the Capital Fringe Festival in July in the Forum at Harman Hall in Washington, DC - "unjuried, risk-taking, independent performing arts" from July 10 - 27. Details and tickets at capitalfringe.org after June 23.

* A House in the Country - Peter Coy's Helen Hayes Award winning play will be performed as part of the Wintergreen Performing Arts Summer Festival, July 28 - August 2.

...coming soon - look for details about an August "Community Cabaret" - have a song? A poem? A tap dance? This could be your lucky break...

And yes, our air conditioning is working! It is nice and cool down here at the Hamner - hope you will venture out and join us.

Cheers,
Boomie

Boomie Pedersen
Co-Artistic Director
The Hamner Theater
434-361-1999