MIDDLEBURY — Area actors will take to the Town Hall Theater stage this Friday, Sept. 9, and Saturday, Sept. 10, in a Civil War-era play drawn directly from the experiences of the people who lived through it.
“Remember Me to All Good Folks: A Play of Vermont Voices in the Civil War” is an original play focusing on the war as it was experienced by rural Vermonters at home and on the battlefield. All the words in the play — letters, memoirs, newspapers — come from the rich archives of the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History in Middlebury. It provides an emotional journey through this turbulent time. Sheldon Museum Executive Director Jan Albers is producing the play. It was written and co-produced by playwright Joan Robinson and is being directed by Robin Fawcett, a drama teacher at Champlain Valley Union High School.
The play will be presented at Middlebury’s THT on Friday at 8 p.m. and on Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. Tickets are available at Town Hall Theater or the Henry Sheldon Museum at 1 Park St.. They can be purchased online at www.townhalltheater.org or www.henrysheldonmuseum.org or in person at either place.
The play will also be performed at the FlynnSpace at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, 153 Main St., Burlington, on Sunday, Sept. 18, at 2 and 7 p.m. Tickets for the Burlington shows are available online at www.flynncenter.org or by calling the Flynn Box Office at 802-863-5966.
The real-life characters include: Union soldier George Howe of Shoreham and his Lorette Wolcott, the object of his affections; Middlebury resident Mary Ann Swift; two other local soldiers, Dunham Clark and Walter Hurd; and Mary Winchester, the wife of a local minister.
“It is very exciting; frenzied preparations are taking place as we get closer to it,” Albers said last week as final rehearsals were in session. “I think the buzz is starting to build around town. I am really excited to see how it’s shaping up.”