Cast announced for VGCC Dinner Theater production

Vance-Granville Community College has announced the cast for “Smoke on the Mountain,” which will be the college’s third annual Dinner Theater event.

 

VGCC’s Drama and Culinary Arts departments are teaming up once again to present a delicious meal followed by an entertaining play, on the evenings of Thursday, April 30, and Friday, May 1, in the Civic Center on VGCC’s Main Campus in Vance County. Dinner begins at 6 p.m. each night.

 

In 2013, VGCC staged its first-ever Dinner Theater with the drama, “Our Town,” followed the next year by the classic British mystery, “An Inspector Calls.” This year’s selection, “Smoke on the Mountain,” will be the college’s first musical.

 

“Smoke on the Mountain” (written by Connie Ray and conceived by Alan Bailey) tells the story of a Saturday night “Gospel sing” at a country church in North Carolina's Smoky Mountains in 1938. The show features two dozen rousing bluegrass songs played and sung by the Sanders Family, a traveling group making its return to performing after a five-year hiatus. Pastor Oglethorpe, the young and enthusiastic minister of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, has enlisted the Sanders Family in his efforts to bring his tiny congregation into "the modern world." Between songs, each family member "witnesses" — telling a story about an important event in his or her life. Though they try to appear perfect in the eyes of a congregation who wants to be inspired by their songs, one thing after another goes awry and they reveal their true — and hilariously imperfect — natures.

 

Spencer Nunn of Warrenton plays Pastor Oglethorpe. Cast members playing the Sanders family include Lauren Elliott of Oxford (“June”), Rev. Pat Cox of Oxford (“Burl”), Button Brady of Clarksville, Va. (“Vera”), Derek Jones of Henderson (“Stanley”), Jessie Hartley of Oxford (“Denise”), Morgan McFalls of Oxford (“Dennis”) and Sidney Henderson of Henderson (“Cousin Sid”).

 

Most cast members are current students at the college. The exceptions are Brady, a VGCC Biology instructor; Elliott, a VGCC Business Office staff member and alumna; and Cox, an adjunct instructor of Southern Culture and Religion at the college.

 

The crew includes technical director Jason Sharp, Mara Shelton and VGCC students Mark Tillotson of Oxford and Jordan Bunting of Macon. Betsy Henderson, VGCC’s Department Chair/Instructor of Humanities and Fine Arts, is the director of the play.

 

Dinner will be prepared by VGCC Culinary Arts students under the direction of program head Chef Ross Ragonese and instructor Chef John Boretti.

 

More information on tickets for this year’s dinner theater will be announced in March.