WINCHESTER -- Different people from different times have different cultures, but there are few if any gulfs that friendship and understanding can't bridge.
That's the premise of "Grace & Glorie," the latest production at Winchester Little Theatre under the direction of Roxie Orndorff.
The play, written by Tom Ziegler, tells the story of an old Virginia widow facing terminal cancer and how her life changes when a whirlwind arrives in the form of Gloria, a recent transplant from New York City turned hospice volunteer.
When Gloria volunteers to help hospice patients, the clash of cultures is apparent -- and entertaining.
"When they first meet, neither one has much use for the other," said Orndorff. "I think Gloria realizes that she's way out of her element when she walks into that rustic cabin."
"Grace is very independent, and 'set in her ways,' as she says many times during the play," she said. "Their cultures are very divergent."
The friction between the two women is the energy that makes the technically challenging, two-woman show possible.
Holding an audience is no mean feat for a large cast. Doing it with just two actors on stage at any given time is even more difficult.
"It's not a farce, it's not running in and out and slamming doors. It's very conversational, very moment to moment driven," she said.
"You feel the tension. They have a rocky start, but the resistance that each one has, trying to resist liking the other is the energy" that keeps the audience engaged, Orndorff said.
That's one reason bringing "Grace" to life has been quite a challenge for actress Jude Wynne.
While the intimacy of a two-person scene isn't that much of a challenge on a movie or television screen, it's a major feat for a live stage production.
"A two character play is extraordinarily intense. It's my first experience doing one," she said.
And much of "Grace & Glorie" is the quiet interplay between the two women on their path to friendship.
"The whole dynamic of the play is between two people," Wynne said. "I'm finding that extremely challenging."
There were some more practical considerations for the actress, as well.
Preparation for the part included "listening to Virginia accents, that's for sure," Wynne said. "Because Grace is a mountain woman, and I'm as Yankee as they come."
Pre-production work wasn't quite done earlier this week, but a sneak peak at the sets showed production values to be high.
Grace's cabin, the one set for the play, was filled with vintage furniture and fixtures guaranteed to rekindle memories of childhood visits to the homes of great-grandparents in some viewers.
The set carries the slightly claustrophobic feel of a small place packed with the possessions of a lifetime.
"It's not a comfy little, cozy feeling cottage," Orndorff said. "Her grandson takes her home from the hospital and dumps her in the cottage and leaves."
"She's had all the things from her big house moved here, because she's sold her farm," she said. "She's been allowed to stay here until she passes, and then they're going to tear this down, too."
Music, three old-time hymns in particular, also plays a special role in the play. Orndorff said the recordings were "awesome" and were a fantastic addition to the atmosphere of Grace's Virginia homestead.
A piece of Grace's fictional home will help some real hospice patients.
The Brumfield Quilters, from Warrenton, heard about the production and stitched a quilt containing blocks of material salvaged at an estate sale.
Some pieces appear to be more than 75 years old, according to the quilters.
Grace's Flower Garden, as the quilt is called, will be raffled off after the show closes to raise money for Blue Ridge Hospice.
Contact Garren Shipley at gshipley@nvdaily.com
]]>STRASBURG -- Mrs. Santa Claus and her helpers will be visiting Hotel Strasburg a few days before Christmas for some refreshments and classical music entertainment -- Victorian style.
For the first time in its history, the Masterworks Chorus of the Shenandoah Valley will host "A Victorian Christmas Tea" event at 2 p.m. on Saturday at the historic hotel at 213 S. Holliday St. The event's location comes as no coincidence, as Hotel Strasburg is an actual Victorian facility. The hotel was originally built as a private hospital in 1902.
"We thought it would be a wonderful holiday opportunity for people to come towards the end of the month to bring in their wives and their daughters and granddaughters to a lovely afternoon tea," said chorus conductor Betty Karol Wilson. "We thought it would be nice to have a tradition of an intimate rendition of music and celebration ... We're thinking this is going to become an annual tradition. And, we just wanted to start with something kind of small and modest this year and see what sort of response we got to it. A tea [party] is a great place for ladies of all ages, from little, young women in their Christmas dresses to ladies in their mature years."
Wilson said she developed the idea of hosting the Victorian event based on her prior musical experiences in Boston.
"For many years, I sang with the Boston Pops Orchestra [during the Christmas holidays.] And, one of the things I noticed being a part of the chorus there was that people like to have a Christmas tradition that they can bring their family to," Wilson said. "So, I thought, 'well, what can we do here in Shenandoah County that would be something on a much smaller scale?'"
The chorus is expecting a crowd of about 50 people, Wilson said. Tickets for the event are $25 for adults and $12 for children ages 5 to 11. The event will feature a buffet of finger foods and sweets and musical performances from members of the chorus. Mrs. Santa Claus and carolers will also appear, as will local magician Ralph McPhail, Wilson said.
It has already been a busy December for the 50-member chorus, as it recently wrapped up its concert series held earlier this month in Strasburg, Woodstock and New Market. The shows drew more than 500 people, something chorus members consider a great accomplishment.
"That's about 150 people more than we have had in the past," Wilson said. "December is always a very busy month for any singing group because people enjoy hearing Christmas carols."
Wilson said about eight members of the Masterworks Chorus of the Shenandoah Valley will be on hand to perform songs that would have been sung in the Victorian period, including such selections as "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman" and "Oh Come All Ye Faithful."
The chorus will also look to perform songs that will appeal to its younger audience members.
"I'm sure with children in the room, somewhere we'll sneak in something like 'Jingle Bells,' which is also Victorian, or 'Rudolph [the Red-nosed Reindeer.]' What's Christmas without a little bit of that child [oriented] music?" Wilson said.
Wilson said the event will also be "a lovely chance to have an opportunity to be close to the performers."
"In a small setting, we can sing right at your table. Rather than in a concert setting, where we might be in the front of the church and you might be several yards away from us," Wilson said. "So, it's nice to have the music right up close.
Guests who attend Saturday's event may also learn a few lessons about tea etiquette.
"For someone who's bringing their granddaughter, I think that will be a very special moment for the granddaughter and grandmother to have tea together at Christmas," said Wilson, a Richmond native.
The Masterworks chorus will hold two more concert series in March and May. The concert series in March will feature songs centered around the theme of love, while the series in May will feature the music of Mozart. The chorus will begin rehearsing in January for its spring season.
Singers in the area who would like to join the chorus can contact Wilson at 740-8841. For additional information, you can also visit its Web site at www.masterworkschorus.com. The Masterworks chorus is in its 12th season.
Contact Linwood Outlaw III at loutlaw@nvdaily.com
]]>MIDDLETOWN -- In the parlor of Belle Grove Plantation, a Christmas tree stretches to the ceiling, but it's the hundreds of tiny eyes peering from under the big evergreen that create a magical scene.
"A Child's Christmas at Belle Grove" is the theme for the holiday season, making iPods, Guitar Hero and Bratz dolls seem futuristic by comparison.
From antique dolls from famed Madame Alexander to older dolls with faces stretched from chicken skin, the collection is as varied as it is enormous.
It's as if the eyes looking back at little museum visitors will transport them back in time, when dolls and simple wooden toys were part of the wonder of Christmas.
Virginia Hedrick Beeler loved children, teaching for nearly half a decade in Shenandoah County -- most of her career spent in elementary classrooms, says her daughter, Laura Ellen Wade, guest curator for the exhibition. Her mother also taught Sunday school for children for more than 60 years.
Beeler died last year at age 97.
"They were just like her children. She loved dolls and she loved children," says Wade.
The dolls are just as beloved to Wade, Beeler's only child, representing more than a century of collecting, with her great-grandmother handing the dolls down to her mother.
Wade immediately goes to a glass display case on a recent morning that holds her mother's seven original childhood dolls, dating back to 1939. A doll in a tiny bed is missing part of its hand, which Beeler chewed off as a child, her daughter says. Another has a shiny porcelain face and is wearing a bright, red dress. It is evident many of these dolls weren't for real play.
"Her grandmother gave them to her and the collection grew," says Wade.
Her grandmother dressed many of the dolls, says Wade, including details like tiny crocheted hats and purses, the latter of which each contain a penny, to doll-sized jewelry.
Because of Beeler's love of dolls and her role in so many children's lives, she was often given dolls by people in the community, who brought them back from places ranging from Bethlehem to Korea. Cards in the exhibit specify who gave her mother the dolls.
Wade points out some larger dolls wearing dresses worn by her mother. Her grandmother would save them for the dolls, and old black-and-white photos are placed near them.
Boy dolls weren't as common, but the exhibit contains some of those, as well.
Baby Grumpy, dressed all blue, doesn't look too happy to be a doll. These dolls were made between 1914 and 1925. There's also a cloth doll, Rastus, whose face adorned Cream of Wheat boxes for decades.
In one bedchamber, a doll stands next to a handcrafted wooden highboy. The detailed reproduction was made in Williamsburg and looks ready to be filled with tiny doll finery. In Belle Grove's nursery, a doll is reclined on a tiny fainting couch. Another looks ready to mount a tiny horse.
The oldest dolls in the collection are grouped together, some 200 years old. English peddler dolls carry their wares with faces made of stretched chicken skin. A French fortune teller doll has tiny paper fortunes hidden under her wide skirt. Frail-looking shell dolls were made off the coast of Britain. French fashion dolls line another area. Made to look like adult women rather than little girls, the dolls don the latest in French fashion of that period, the 1870s to the 1890s.
The first patented doll in America was made in 1858.
A George Washington doll is really a German candy container. Another German bisque doll, dating to 1905, actually has three faces that can be turned to fit a child's mood. Another doll hides a pin cushion under her skirt. Larger dolls have actual hoop skirts under their dresses. The details and the craftsmanship of these toys is unsurpassed, as doll makers worked to shrink down the real to fit the dolls.
Wade estimates that she has 800 dolls produced in various media, including china, bisque, cloth, paper mache, wood, wax and parian.
A doll plays a tiny piano on the dining room table of Belle Grove.
"It's just wonderful for us to have and be able to show these dolls," says Craig Orndorff, program coordinator for Belle Grove. "I understand the attention had to be paid to every little detail and at Belle Grove, we like to highlight craftsmanship."
Up until the time of her death, Beeler would travel with her daughter to national doll shows in larger metropolitan areas, always looking for that special doll to add to her collection.
The first time the dolls were exhibited at Belle Grove was in 1984. This season they are accentuated by a variety of seasonal plants and decorations provided by area garden clubs.
Call Belle Grove Plantation at 869-2028 or go online to www.bellegrove.org for holiday hours and admission.
*Contact Natalie Austin at
