I thought I had arrived early enough to get a good seat on the bus, only to find that all the seats were taken and that Becky and I were on the back row! To say that was an experience is a great understatement....LOL.
In all our years of escorting 8th graders to Washington, DC, Becky and I were always on the front row, so today was something quite new for us. Picture this: - 3 hours on a small bus traveling through the mountains NC, TN, and VA. - 3 hours of rocking and rolling side to side and up and down. - 3 hours of a driver going way too fast for mountain roads. - 3 hours of fluctuating temperatures that were making all of us on the back row just a bit queasy. We finally got to Abingdon and once again Becky and I were in for another new experience... lunch at Cracker Barrel. Would you believe we have never eaten there before? We both had breakfast and it was pretty good. We arrived at the Barter Theater an hour early and when we finally were given our tickets, we were on row V in the balcony. I couldn't believe that the place was packed for a 2:00 performance on a Tuesday! We certainly weren't the only church group there and I would guess that was because the play was "David: The New Musical". I gotta tell you, it was really, really good. It was the story of Israel's great shepherd-turned warrior-king. The original acoustic music was great, the singers had powerful voices, and I thoroughly enjoyed a new look at this old story. The Barter Theater itself was another first for me. It opened on June 19, 1933 and is one of the longest running professional theatres in the nation. In 1933, when the country was in the middle of the Great Depression, most patrons were not able to pay the full ticket price. The founder of the theatre, offered admittance by letting the local people pay with food goods, hence the name "Barter". The original ticket price for a play was 35 cents, or the equivalent in goods. In 1946, Barter Theatre was designated the State Theatre of Virginia. Many well-known stars of stage, screen and television have launched their careers at Barter, including Gregory Peck, Ernest Borgnine, Patricia Neal, Ned Beatty, Hume Cronyn, and Kevin Spacey. |
Thanks for picking up your Barter Theater Postcard and traveling along with me. See ya tomorrow!