This past Wednesday, August 1, was a momentous day in the life of Virginia Rep. It marked the 65^th Anniversary of the day in 1953 when six actors from NYC made their final down payment on a decrepit, falling apart, awe-inspiring Hanover Tavern—and moved in. They were accompanied by two children, a dog, and two pigs named Delilah and Sheba. They had spent every penny they could beg, borrow, or dig out from the sofa cushions to purchase a derelict property with no glass in the windows, no electricity, and no running water. But it was their dream come true. The next morning, Sunday, they all went to bathe in Taylor’s Pond, and then headed down the road to church, where their trained voices rose to the rafters and impressed their new neighbors. Over the coming decades, two of the six stayed, and not only saved a Virginia historic landmark, they also created RVA’s first professional performing arts organization of the modern era. They called their company Barksdale Memorial Theatre. In 2001, Barksdale joined forces with Theatre IV. In 2012, the two nonprofit companies merged to form Virginia Rep. This week, all of us at Virginia Rep join in saluting these courageous (and insane?) 20-somethings: Muriel McAuley, Pete Kilgore, Perky Kilgore, Tom Carlin, Stu Falconer, and Pat Sharp. Thank you for your vision, your passion, and your tenacity. We remain forever in your debt.    

“A vug is a small to medium-sized cavity inside rock. It may be formed through a variety of processes. Most commonly, vugs opened by tectonic activity are partially filled by quartz, calcite, and other secondary minerals.” Knowing that, I suspect I may own a bookend at home that has a vug on it. Anyway, before anyone utters “What the vug?” please let me quickly explain that the word vug plays a crucial role in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, the wonderful, highly entertaining musical comedy that is playing for FREE tonight and tomorrow night at Dogwood Dell, weather permitting. What a FUN show! Several Virginia Rep staffers attended last weekend and raved, and several more are schedule to attend this evening. Everyone’s going to support the ten Virginia Rep alum who contribute so much to making this merry musical a success: director Joe Pabst, music director Ben Miller, choreographer Kate Belleman, stage manager Leanna Hicks, costume designer Tom Hammond, lighting designer Gretta Daughtrey, sound designer Nick Creery, and cast members Allison Paige Gilman, Levi Meerovich, and Jeff Clevenger. For a good time, head on down to the Dell for the 8:30 curtain. We’re proud of our Virginia Rep veterans, and you’ll laugh your socks off when you see their work!

Virginia Rep has two great “sisterhood” shows in the works right now: Crimes of the Heart, the Southern gothic comedy about the misfit Magrath sisters at Hanover Tavern, and In My Chair, Eva DeVirgilis’s one-woman show about women and the their perceptions of beauty, now in development for its World Premiere in Theatre Gym next Spring. The casts of these two shows traveled downtown last week for a sisterhood symposium at The Broad, the new “working space by day, social space by night,” located on Foushee Street around the corner from our historic November Theatre. The mission of The Broad is “making space for women.” Under the moderation of Dani Brown, Virginia Rep’s Development Associate, a panel comprised of Eva, Maggie Bavolack, Maggie Roop, Irene Kuykendall, and Lexi Langs spoke before a group of about 25 to 30 women age 18 through mid-50s. Topics centered on collaboration over competition as each actress explored the meaning and importance of sisterhood, both to their characters in the plays and to themselves as women. Crimes of the Heart continues its run at Hanover Tavern through August 26.