Maine State Music Theatre & Portland Stage present Smoke on the Mountain

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Steven Dietz William Gillette & Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Written by Based on the original 1899 play by

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Ed Howard, Joe Sears, & Jaston Williams

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LIVE

DIGITAL ON-DEMAND

Aug. 3 - 29

Aug. 18 - Sep. 12

BOOK BY Connie Ray • CONCEIVED BY Alan Bailey MUSICAL ARRANGEMENTS BY Mike Carver and Mark Hardwick

Portland Stage Anita Stewart, Artistic Director Martin Lodish, Managing Director

This theater operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States. *Members of the Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.

**The Scenic, Costume, Lighting, and Sound Designers in LORT are represented by United Scenic Artists Local USA-829, IATSE ***The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society is the theatrical union that unites, empowers, & protects professional Stage Directors and Choreographers throughout the United States.

SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com The video and/or audio recording of this live production by any means whatsoever are strictly prohibited. The distribution of our digital production is strictly prohibited.

Special thanks to Matt Kennedy.

Maine State Music Theatre Curt Dale Clark, Artistic Director Stephanie Dupal, Managing Director

CAST Rev. Mervin Oglethorpe..........John Vessels, Jr.* June Sanders...................................Sarah Hund* Burl Sanders...................................Larry Tobias* Denise Sanders..............................Elleon Dobias Dennis Sanders...........................Daniel Emond* Stanley Sanders.........................Andrew Crowe* Vera Sanders..........................April Lee Uzarski* ARTISTIC/PRODUCTION Director......................................Jeff Stockberger Music Director.............................Andrew Crowe Scenic Designer.........................Anita Stewart** Costume Designer........Kathleen Payton Brown Lighting Designer.............................Jamie Grant Sound Designer/Audio Supervisor....Chris Fitze Stage Manager.................................Meg Lydon* Assistant Stage Manager.......Grace Kellar-Long Technical Director............................Ted Gallant Props Master...........................Meg A. Anderson Costume Shop Manager.............Susan Thomas Stitchers/Wardrobe.............. Grace Kellar-Long Master Electrician......................Audrey Kastner Audio Engineer.............................David Hession Sound Support..............................Matt Kennedy

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WHO’S WHO ANDREW CROWE* (Stanley Sanders/Musical Director) is an actor, musician, and songwriter from Franklinton, NC, and he’s honored to be making his Portland Stage debut. Credits include the National Tours of Sweeney Todd (u/s Anthony & Tobias), Cabaret (Victor), and Stand By Your Man (Don Chapel), as well as Fiddler on the Roof (the Fiddler) at the Muny in St. Louis, New York Public Theatre’s Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night (Ensemble), and over 70 regional theatre productions. Andrew holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Taylor University and acting training from Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA, and The Barrow Group in New York City. Andrew lives on a small plot of land he calls Narnia.

ELLEON DOBIAS (Denise Sanders) Born and raised in Colorado, Elleon’s work as an actor, musician, and writer has taken her to a variety of venues, and she is grateful to add Portland Stage to the list. Her favorite credits include the National Tour of Once (Apex Touring), Indecent (Victory Gardens), Haymarket (Underscore Theatre), The 2019 Concert Series (Chicago Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra), A Christmas Carol (Denver Center for the Performing Arts), and multiple roles as a resident company member with the American Shakespeare Center. Aside from performing, you can find Elleon hiking, doodling, and melting Junior Mints into hot popcorn. Thank you for supporting live theatre! *MEMBER OF ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION

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DANIEL EMOND* (Dennis Sanders) is a Queensbased singer and composer for Musical Theatre who prefers to write his bio in 1st person. My Rock Musical KILL THE WHALE: A MUSICAL ODYSSEY—an irreverent re-telling of Moby-Dick—has seen development in Polyphone Festival, SPACE on Ryder Farm, Corkscrew Festival, NYU, the Melville Bicentennial Conference, and Nantucket Theatre Workshop. I’m a 2021 Jonathan Larson Finalist, and was a William R. Kenan Jr. Performing Arts Fellow and an NFAA YoungArts alum, and have been accepted to Yaddo in 2022. Other composing credits include the multi-lingual score to the International Production of Neil Bartlett’s The Plague at Hong Kong Arts Festival 2021, and DAWN, a new Folk Musical, at Signature Theatre, and a new dream musical at CLLIC. I sometimes tour as a banjoist with The Blue Eyed Bettys with Sarah Hund!

SARAH HUND* (June Sanders) is so happy to return to the Sanders Family! Favorite productions include Into the Woods (The Witch); Les Misérables (Fantine); 9 to 5 the Musical (Judy Bernly); Once (Reza); 42nd Street (Dorothy Brock); and Smoke on the Mountain (June) at companies such as Ogunquit Playhouse, Walnut Street Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre, and Phoenix Theatre. She also tours with her band The Blue Eyed Bettys throughout the U.S. TV: Law & Order: SVU.

WHO’S WHO LARRY TOBIAS* (Burl Sanders) is thrilled to be joining Portland Stage for Smoke on the Mountain.

Regional credits include The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Weston Playhouse, Asolo Rep, Paramount Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Baltimore Center Stage, The Mountain Playhouse, and many others. A selection of Larry’s TV and film work includes Nashville, Donnie Brasco, Ball of Wax, The Angel Doll, etc.

In addition to acting, Larry is the front man and lead singer for The Grand Tour, a celebration of the music of the King of Country Music, George Jones. www.TheGrandTourConcert.com He lives 12 miles west of the Lincoln Tunnel, in New Jersey, with his wife and their miraculous 4-year-old daughter (also 1 cat).

Dotty Otley in Noises Off; Sister Hubert in Nunsense; Lee Green in The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife; Eleanor Hunter in No Sex Please, We’re British; Ms. Lynch in Grease; and Woman 2 in Mid-Life! The Crisis Musical.

When April isn’t acting, she is an Associate Director of Tech Community at Xandr, a Microsoft company. Thank you to Andrew Crowe for bringing April out of her Smoke on the Mountain retirement. Love to Andy, Walter, Omar, Inara, and the rest of the crew back in Pittsburgh.

JOHN VESSELS, JR.* (Mervin Oglethorpe) is thrilled to be making his Portland Stage Company debut and to be revisting Mervin Oglethorpe for the 6th time!

He portrayed the good reverend in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2013, and 2014 at Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre in Indianapolis, IN. Favorite regional credits include The APRIL LEE Old Man in A Christmas Story (Rising Star UZARSKI* (Vera Casino/Resort), Adolfo Pirelli in Sweeney Sanders) is excited Todd (Actors Theatre of Indiana), Mal to be joining the Beineke in The Addams Family (Beef & cast of Smoke on Boards), Miss Tracy Mills in The Legend of the Mountain at Georgia McBride (Phoenix Theatre Indy), Portland Stage Underling in The Drowsy Chaperone (Beef Company. She & Boards), Detective Sgt. Trotter in The worked for two Mousetrap (Derby Dinner Playhouse), summers in the early 2000s on Great Edgar Beane in Titanic (Fireside Dinner Pond in Belgrade Lakes, and is happy Theatre), Tito Mirelli in Lend Me a Tenor to be back in the 207. April is an actor/ (Old Schoolhouse Theater), and Sylvia musician recently transplanted to her St. Croix in Ruthless! the Musical! (Actors hometown of Pittsburgh, PA. She has Theatre of Indiana). When not onstage, spent the past 17 years in NYC, acting John is a writer and teacher of voice and in professional theatre and building a acting. His creation, Lillian Baxter (coseparate career in Silicon Alley. Between written with partner, Jay Schwandt), has 2003 and 2011, April appeared as Vera toured the country in five cabaret-comedySanders in over 500 performances across memoirs. In 2019, his Life Hacks with Miss the country, in all three Sanders Family Havisham (co-written with Schwandt) won shows. April’s additional favorite roles Best Variety Show at NYC’s United Solo include Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes; Festival. Much love to Jay! *MEMBER OF ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION

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WHO’S WHO KATHLEEN PAYTON BROWN (Costume Design) has designed costumes for many shows at Portland Stage. Most recently: Perseverance; Talley’s Folly; Almost, Maine; It’s a Wonderful Life; Ain’t Misbehavin’; Skeleton Crew; and The Half-Light. Favorite designs: Red Herring, Lost Boy Found at Whole Foods, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Dancing at Lughnasa, Red, Love/Sick, and Hidden Tennessee. Other design credits: MSMT, Theater at Monmouth, The Public Theatre, UMaine Dept. of Theatre, Bates and Colby College Theater, Lyric Stage Co., and the N.J. Shakespeare Co. Kathleen lives in Camden, managing her own custom clothing business, as well as works as the Events & Membership Coordinator at The Waldo Theatre. She is grateful for the support of her Portland Stage colleagues (her theatre family), as without them this incredible creative work would not be possible.

CHRIS FITZE (Sound Design) is delighted to be back at Portland Stage Company.

Chris’s past designs with PSC include: Fences; Brighton Beach Memoirs; and Almost, Maine. He has also designed sound for Dramatic Repertory Company, The Maine Playwrights Festival, and The Children’s Theater of Maine (to name a few). He works with the Portland Symphony Orchestra designing set for their annual Magic of Christmas concerts and occasionally runs lights and sound.

Chris works at Breakwater School and is also the Technical Director for Bonny Eagle High School. Love to Jessica and the boyz.

GRACE KELLAR-LONG (Assistant Stage Manager • she/her) graduated from Bowdoin College with a B.A. in Theater, where she completed a performance honors project, adapting and directing a science fiction play. Stage management credits include The Wolves, Henry VI Part 2, and Sweat at Bowdoin College and The Roommate with Prime Productions in Minneapolis. She was the NHL Production Office Assistant for the 2022 Winter Classic at Target Field on New Year’s Day. In her free time, Grace likes to read science fiction, knit, listen to podcasts, and run with her two dogs.

MEG LYDON* (Stage Manager) Meg is thrilled to join the production team for another season at Portland Stage!

She has loved getting to know the theatre community here in Portland; recent work has been at Fenix Theatre Company, Good Theater, Dramatic Repertory Company, and Bates and Bowdoin Colleges. She also loves to spend summers at Chester Theatre Company in the Berkshires. Meg is a proud member of AEA and is forever grateful to Darren. Many thanks to the cast and production team – here’s to a great show!

JAMIE GRANT (Lighting Design) Credits include Portland Stage: Last Ship to Proxima Centauri, Ring of Fire, Where We Stand.

Maine State Music Theatre: Jersey Boys, Welcome Home, Christine & Patsy. Resident Designer for the Portland Ballet Company with works that include: Persephone & Hades, Momentum, Jack the Ripper, Victorian *MEMBER OF ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION

Nutcracker, Giselle, Firebird. Maine Choral Arts Society/Portland Ballet: Carmina Burana, The Armed Man, Requiem. Portland Symphony Orchestra: The Magic of Christmas. Opera Maine: Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly, La Fille Du Regiment, Hansel und Gretel, Romeo et Juliette, Barber of Seville, Don Giovanni. Colby College: Wendy and the Neckbeards, End of Men. UMaine Orono Dept. of Theatre: A Man of No Importance, The Wolves, Stupid F’n Bird, Big Love, The Cherry Orchard. USM Dept. of Theatre: Unlock’d, Winter Idyll, Merry Wives of Windsor, Company. Jamie is also the General Manager of the Westbrook Performing Arts Center.

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WHO’S WHO CONNIE RAY (Book Writer) is a playwright and actress who divides her time between LA and NYC. She wrote the musicals Smoke on the Mountain, Sanders Family Christmas and Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming, three of Samuel French’s most popular titles. Her musicals and plays have been produced off-off-Broadway, off-Broadway, regionally, and around the world. On Broadway, she appeared in Hands on a Hardbody, Next Fall and The Heidi Chronicles. Films include Flags of Our Fathers, Thank You for Smoking, About Schmidt; and Hope Floats, among others.

TV: Star of The Torkelsons, recurring guests on The Big C, Justified and Entourage, among many others.

ANITA STEWART** (Scenic Design) has worked as a set and costume designer at leading theatres across the country, including the Guthrie, Seattle Rep, Canadian Opera Company, Minnesota Opera, A.R.T., Steppenwolf, Hartford Stage, Dallas Theater Center, Long Wharf Theatre, New York Theatre Workshop, Boise Contemporary Theater, New Jersey Shakespeare, and Portland Stage. Anita’s desire to play a meaningful role as an artist in a specific community brought her to Portland Stage as Artistic Director, a company for which she had previously done significant freelance design. Anita holds an MFA in design from the Yale School of Drama.

JEFF STOCKBERGER (Director) Born and raised in St. Louis, MO, Jeff now resides in Indianapolis, IN, where he is a resident actor/director/stage manager for Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre. Jeff has been acting professionally for over 30 years and began directing over 15 years ago. Smoke on the Mountain has been a part of Jeff’s life since he played the role of Mervin Oglethorpe in 1992 and continues to be one of Jeff’s favorite and most treasured shows. This will be Jeff’s fourth time directing Smoke on the Mountain. Other directing credits include: Sanders Family Christmas, Smoke On The Mountain Homecoming, A Christmas Carol, Million Dollar Quartet, Buddy! The Buddy Holly Story, They’re Playing Our Song, Greater Tuna, Into the Woods, Saturday Night Fever, Little Shop of Horrors, and Honky Tonk Angels for Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre. The Odd Couple for Actors Theatre of Indiana; and A Christmas Carol for Big Arts Sanibel Island. After finishing his directing duties here, Jeff will be returning to Indy where he will play the role of J.D. in Escape to Margaritaville. Jeff would like to dedicate this show to his father, Keith Stockberger. **MEMBER OF THE UNITED SCENIC ARTISTS LOCAL USA-829, IATSE

ALAN BAILEY (Conceiver) co-authored one of the country’s most frequently produced musicals, Smoke on the Mountain, which ran more than 500 performances at the Lamb’s Theatre in New York, garnering award nominations from the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation. It was named one of the ten best plays of the year by Time magazine, The New York Times, and the Associated Press.

Smoke on the Mountain and its sequels Sanders Family Christmas and Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming are among Samuel French’s most frequently produced plays. Additionally, Mr. Bailey has written eight plays that have been produced regionally; he contributed to the musical scores of six of these shows, including the cult favorite Henry the 8th at the Grand Ole Opry. His play Wedding Belles was a semi-finalist for the American Theatre Critics Association’s Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Award, recognizing the best plays of the year that premiered professionally outside New York City. Alan, a Macon, Georgia native, is a five-time undefeated

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WHO’S WHO Jeopardy champion and multi-tournament Jeopardy veteran. Additionally, he is not only one of the few humans to defeat IBM’s computer Watson in a Jeopardy match, he holds the record for having beat that fearsome son-of-a-bitch computer by the biggest margin of any player who lived to tell it.

MIKE CRAVER (Co-Musical Arranger) is a North Carolina-based songwriter, actor, and composer. Off-Broadway credits include The Oil City Symphony (co-author and original cast member, cast recording, Drama Desk Award), Smoke on the Mountain (arrangements, published

by Samuel French), Radio Gals (co-author and original cast member, cast recording, LA Ovation Award, published by Samuel French), Wilder (co-author and original cast), original music for Sam Shepard’s A Lie of the Mind, and Bland Simpson and Jim Wann’s Diamond Studs (cast recording and band). Mike also arranged and wrote original material for Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming (published

by Samuel French). He has worked in theatres across the country, including the Pasadena Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, MA. Commissioned work includes three musicals (Bosh and Moonshine, The Belle of Wabash, Sarah Bernhardt in Texas, and Oklahoma Hale and Damnation) based on a troupe of actors and musicians touring the American West during the 19th century. Mike collaborated with southern novelist Clyde Edgerton on a musicalization of Edgerton’s novel Lunch at the Piccadilly. Mike graduated from the University of North Carolina and was a member of the Red Clay Ramblers for many years. Recorded work includes nine Red Clay Ramblers albums. Craver has released three solo albums—Fishing for Amour, Wagoner’s Lad, and Shining Down—and recordings of two musical projects with Clyde Edgerton—Lunch at

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the Piccadilly and The Bible Salesman. He currently plays with the old-time string band Craver, Hicks, Watson & Newberry.

MARK HARDWICK (Co-Musical Arranger) composed the music for the 1975 Broadway production of Of Mice and Men and co-wrote the musical Oil City Symphony.

A SPECIAL THANK YOU — TO OUR — SHOW SPONSORS

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OPENING WEEK SPONSOR

MUSICAL NUMBERS ACT ONE “The Church in the Wildwood”.........................................The Sanders Family “Wonderful Time Up There”..............................................The Sanders Family “Build on the Rock”.............................................................The Sanders Family “Meet Mother in the Skies”...........................................................Stanley, Burl “No Tears in Heaven”.........................................................The Sanders Family “Christian Cowboy”....................................................................Dennis, Denise “The Filling Station”............................................................The Sanders Family “I’ll Never Die (I’ll Just Change My Address)”..........................................Denise “Jesus is Mine”........................................................................Oglethorpe, Burl, Stanley, Dennis “The Blood Medley”............................................................The Sanders Family “I’ll Live a Million Years”.....................................................The Sanders Family

ACT TWO “I Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now”...............................Vera, Burl “Everyone Home But Me”.......................................................................Stanley “I Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now”...............The Sanders Family “Angel Band”......................................................................The Sanders Family, Oglethorpe “Bringing in the Sheaves”..................................................The Sanders Family, Oglethorpe “Whispering Hope”.............................................................The Sanders Family “Inching Along”...................................................................The Sanders Family “I’m Using My Bible for a Roadmap”..................................The Sanders Family “I’ll Walk Every Step of the Way”........................................The Sanders Family “I’m Taking a Flight”..........................................................Vera, Denise, Dennis “Life’s Railway to Heaven”..................................................The Sanders Family “Smoke on the Mountain”.................................................The Sanders Family “I’ll Fly Away”.......................................................................The Sanders Family “When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder”...............................The Sanders Family, Oglethorpe THE VIDEOTAPING OR MAKING OF ELECTRONIC OR OTHER AUDIO AND/OR VISUAL RECORDINGS OF THIS PRODUCTION OR DISTRIBUTING RECORDINGS ON ANY MEDIUM, INCLUDING THE INTERNET, IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED, A VIOLATION OF THE AUTHOR’S RIGHTS AND ACTIONABLE UNDER UNITED STATES COPYRIGHT LAW.

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PORTLAND STAGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES Darrell Pardy, President Samantha Bowen

Edith Iyer-Hernandez

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PORTLAND STAGE TEAM LEADERSHIP

Artistic Director....................................................................Anita Stewart Managing Director............................................................... Martin Lodish

ARTISTIC • PRODUCTION

Assistant Production Manager • Sound Supervisor... Seth Asa Sengel Associate Technical Director............................................. Jacob Coombs Company Manager......................................................... Jennifer London Costume Shop Manager.................................................... Susan Thomas Literary Manager......................................................... Todd Brian Backus Production Manager • Lighting Supervisor................... Mary Lana Rice Props Master................................................................... Meg A. Anderson Stage Managers..............................................Myles C. Hatch, Meg Lydon Technical Director....................................................................Ted Gallant

ADMINISTRATION

Apprentice Coordinators.................... Jennifer London & Julianne Shea Assistant Marketing Director.......................................Cody W. Brackett Audience Services Manager................................................Donald Smith Box Office Assistant Manager........................................ Renee Myhaver Business Manager............................................................. Paul Ainsworth Development Associate................................................... Lindsey Higgins Development Director............................................................. Beth Given Education Administrator..................................................... Julianne Shea Education Assistant................................................................Aisling Dono Education Director............................................................Hannah Cordes Executive Assistant.................................................................... Zoë Lewis Front of House Associates..... Madeleine St. Germain, Shannon Wade Group Sales Coordinator...................................................Myles C. Hatch House & Concessions Manager......................................... Chris DeFilipp House Manager...............................................................Adam Thibodeau Marketing & Communications Director............................Mical Hutson

SUMMER 2022 APPRENTICES

Education Apprentices...Lucie Hopkins, Katie Ludlam, Kailey Morand

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Larry Tobias*, John Vessels, Jr., Andrew Crowe *member of Actors’ Equity Association

SILLY AND SPIRITUAL, SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN BRINGS BLUEGRASS TO PORTLAND STAGE For their annual collaboration with Maine State Music Theater, Portland Stage is headed to Appalachia.

BY MOLLY ADAMS, SPONSORED BY PORTLAND STAGE With a songbook of bona fide bluegrass and gospel like “Angel Band,” “I’ll Fly Away,” and “Whispering Hope,” Smoke on the Mountain invites its audience to a concert-gone-slightly-awry in a small, Baptist church in 1930s North Carolina.

Actors John Vessels Jr (Pastor Oglethorpe), Sarah Hund (June Sanders) and Andrew Crowe (Stanley), who is also the music director for this production, have all performed in Smoke at least once before, with Vessels

re-visiting his character for the sixth time. They joined a conversation about creating a lived-in performance with music and emotions that connect with all types of folks.

MOLLY ADAMS: How would you describe this show to a friend who hasn’t seen it?

JOHN VESSELS, JR: Nunsense for Baptists. [Everyone laughs.] It’s a look into this culture of people through a loving but comical lens.

The track list reminds me of O Brother, Where Art Thou, and that was a huge hit. The music has Christian roots, but so many people connect to it.

VESSELS: Well, it’s a show about people! Character and conflict. The Sanders family has something they need to do and Pastor Oglethorpe has something he needs to do.

They’re chaos for him and he’s chaos for them. I have atheist friends who love this show.

SARAH HUND: And it takes place in real time, so you’re seeing this real slice of the family performing and living at this church.

Are any of you from this type of background?

ANDREW CROWE: I was raised in a very religious family. My parents were missionaries, and we grew up some in Portugal. When we were back in the States, we would visit churches up and down the East Coast and we would get up and sing as a family and then my dad would preach.

HUND: Wow, that’s amazing. That’s really your life!

So, you really get this show.

CROWE: Yes, and I see how it’s potentially tricky to advertise a show that appears to be a church service.

But when I’ve done this show before, people will come up to me afterward saying, “The light of

April Lee Uzarski* *member of Actors’ Equity Association

Jesus shines through you, thank you for your testimonies.” And literally the next goes, “Boy, you really skewered the Christians.”

So, it’s not a preachy show—unless you want to feel it that way.

HUND: I have had the same postshow experience. Sometimes, people think we’re a real family.

Jon, what has brought you back to this show so many times?

VESSELS: Every character is deliciously flawed. There’s not one person that holds a higher virtue than anybody else. I’ve always been interested by people who want to give a testimony to save your soul, but they don’t see that they are vain or prideful or whatever their particular bugaboo is.

Andrew, what’s it like to also be the musical director for the show?

CROWE: It’s unique as far as music directing jobs are concerned. It is also a little intimidating, because of how strong of musicians the other cast members are. There’s as script and score, but nothing is locked in.

Our job is to become a band the way a family would become a band.

I guide us to cohesion.

How many instruments are played in the show?

HUND: If you count percussion, like

triangles and everything, 30 or 40.

VESSELS: Piano, mandolin, banjo, two guitars, fiddle, bass, a trumpet shows up, an accordion too, autoharp…

HURD: Every production of this show you see could be different.

I was in a show where the twin characters were fiddle players and they created duels. In our show, we have Daniel Emond, who is an incredible banjo player and my actual bandmate offstage.

So, you all play multiple instruments?

HUND: My character, June, does not play. The musician in me wants to jam and sing along, but June is a very rewarding character to play. I love her with all my heart, just her sweetness and who she is. She tries so hard to be a part of everything, and she has a wisdom to her as well. Her job is listening, and the world and the Sanders family needs that.

CROWE: June has something to say that is useful to political and cultural conversations we’re having right now. We often have strong, preconceived notions. But if we stop and listen, we run a lovely risk of softening our view and seeing someone else as being human, even if they do fall on a completely different end of something than we do, and maybe be ready to tread softer in the world.

Front Row L to R: April Lee Uzarski*, Larry Tobias*, 2nd Row L to R: Elleon Dobias, Daniel Emond* Back: Andrew Crowe* *member of Actors’ Equity Association

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