A poignant and passionate Kentucky roots musical about the lives of coal miners in the Appalachian Mountains will kick off Actors Theatre of Louisville's 2007-08 seven-play Brown-Forman Mainstage Series August 28 – September 22.
Press Opening is slated for August 30 at 7:30 pm.
Through true-life stories of the people of this extraordinary culture, Fire on the Mountain features a feast of bluegrass, blues and ballads and captures the spirit and history of the men and women who have long called the Appalachian coal mining communities of Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia their home.
The musical marks the return of acclaimed director and creator Randal Myler, who wrote and directed past Actors Theatre musical hits Love, Janis (2005) and Hank Williams: Lost Highway (2004). Myler, along with co-creator Dan Wheetman, includes three dozen songs in Fire on the Mountain performed by a cast of eight singer-actor-musicians. The songs relay the lifestyle, courage, culture, hardships and heroics of miners and their families, who were interviewed by Myler and Wheetman.
The cast includes Molly Andrews, Mark Baczynski, "Mississippi" Charles Bevel, Margaret Bowman, Jason Edwards, A.J. Glaser, Lee Morgan, Mike Regan and Ed Snodderly.
Andrews portrayed Patsy Cline in the popular Actors Theatre musical Always...Patsy Cline in the summer of 1997 and the production's subsequent revival in 1999.
Chicago's Sun-Times called the musical a "richly evocative, emotionally-seared musical quilt." And the Denver Post wrote, "The subject matter is too profound, the resilient people it honors too proud, the music they perform too undeniably soul-shaking for one to think of it as anything other than a spiritual triumph. With voices wailing, instruments blazing and boots stomping with the rhythm of a heartbeat, Fire on the Mountain feels like a hootenanny and a revival at once."
Other productions in Actors Theatre's Brown-Forman Mainstage Series include The Underpants (October 2 –27), Steve Martin's adaptation of Carl Sternheim's comic romp about the bewildering misfortune of love; Spunk (November 13 – December 15), three tales of love, betrayal and forgiveness by Zora Neal Hurston adapted by George C. Wolfe; The Tempest (January 2 – February 2), Shakespeare's magical comic romance directed by Actors Artistic Director Marc Masterson; The Clean House (January 29 – February 23), Sarah Ruhl's offbeat comedy; the Humana Festival of New American Plays (February 24 – March 30) and Doubt (April 16 – May 10), John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama. -- www.actorstheatre.org
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