Greetings, Natchez and the Miss-Lou!

Natchez Little Theatre is proud to open its 69th season celebrating 85 years of entertainment this weekend with a great American play celebrating the American family, “Foxfire.” The original music in the show features country, blue grass and folk music of Appalachia.

“Foxfire” is a play with songs, book by Susan Cooper and Hume Cronyn, music by Jonathan Brielle and lyrics by Susan Cooper, Hume Cronyn and Jonathan Brielle. The show was based on the Foxfire books, about Appalachian culture in north Georgia and the struggle to keep the traditions alive.

The 1982 Broadway production starred Jessica Tandy, who won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance. It costarred Hume Cronyn as well as Keith Carradine who played a country music performer selling out the old traditions to make a buck. Carradine sang most of the songs in the show and most notable were the close of Act 1, “My Feet Took T’ Walkin›.” It was later adapted as a TV movie, where Tandy played the same role and won an Emmy Award. Carradine was replaced with John Denver for the Hallmark movie. Other songs in the show included: “Sweet Talker,” “Dear Lord,” “Young Lady Take A Warning,” and “Red Ear.”

Foxfire glows in the dark in the forests of Southern Appalachia; it’s a lichen which lives on dead fallen trees. It is also the name of a magazine in which for more than a decade the young people of Appalachia have recorded the beliefs and personalities of their grandparents’ generation. The last of the indomitable pioneers who carved out of unwelcoming mountain soil not only a living but a tough, joyous way of life which has almost vanished now.

The play takes places at Stony Lonesome, the mountain homestead owned and inhabited by the Nations family in Rabun County, Georgia, in the present time and time before that. “Foxfire” is directed by NLT veteran and award-winning director, Don Vesterse, and he also stars in the production as Hector Nations, the family patriarch. Portraying his wife, Annie Nations, is NLT veteran actress Bennie Boone. Their son, Dillard, is played by NLT award-winning actor, Jon Borum, who sings and plays guitar throughout the show.

Additional cast members are Melinda Ballard, an award-winning NLT actress, who is making her return to the NLT stage after a 10-year absence, along with NLT award-winning actors Nance Hixon and Stacey Carden.

This is a play about the families that settled this nation choosing a simple lifestyle living off the land and the traditions that are dying with the gentrification of their land. A moving American story for the family with music that will have you laughing and crying!

“Foxfire” runs at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and closes at 2 p.m. on Sunday at the Natchez Little Theatre at 319 Linton Ave. at Maple Street. All tickets are $15 for non-members of Natchez Little Theatre. For reservations call NLT at 601-442-2233 or toll free at 1-877-440-2233, or purchase your tickets securely in advance on-line at natcheztheatre.org.

We look forward to seeing you at “Foxfire”
Layne Taylor is the artistic and executive director for Natchez Little Theatre.