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NEWS RELEASES JUNE '04

Smoke on the Mountain opens at Theatre on the Bay June 18, 2004
June 1, 2004

ABC Printers presents Theatre on the Bay’s heart-warming musical comedy “Smoke on the Mountain” June 18 - 21 and 25 - 28 at 7:30 pm, directed by Dr. Doug Larche.
Performed at TOB just two summers ago, Smoke on the Mountain is being brought back because it was one of TOB’s most popular musicals and Larche, who has just returned from a year as a Fulbright Scholar in Ukraine, needed to assemble a cast for the season opener in a very short time. “Fortunately, almost the entire cast from the first Smoke is still in the area and we had so much fun the first go-around, we can’t wait to get on stage with it again,” said Larche.

Written by Connie Ray and conceived by Alan Bailey, Smoke on the Mountain is a musical comedy set in 1938 about a Blue Ridge Mountain family of Southern Gospel musicians and singers, the Sanders Family of Siler City, North Carolina, that gives a spirit-filled concert at the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church.

Rev. Oglethorpe (Earl Bauman) invites the Sanders family: Ma (Anne Garcia), Pa (Doug Townsend), daughter June (Alyssa Kamin), twins Denise (Jennifer Farley), Dennis (Casey Mines), and brother Stanley (Jason Larche) who run a gas station-general store in the next town, to entertain at the first ever Saturday night sing. They are joined by cousins Rufus (Bill Shepard), Rueben (Dave Rickaby) Raef (Doug Larche), Raebella (Sarah Behnke), and Ruebella (Lisa Giebler).
The family has a great time playing guitar, bass, piano, banjo, dulcimer and other instruments, singing and inspiring the congregation by “witnessing” with parables and stories of their own human frailties.

Other members of the cast include singing deacons, Don Peterlin and Michael Lyons and church members Karolyn Rice, Mindy Peterlin, Barb Bertagnoli, Mary Nemetz, and Annalisa Mines. Members of the Ladies Aid Society are Rianna DeCleene, Jenifer Lyons, Rhian Smith, Leah Van Laanen and Kirstie Kamin.
The New York Times calls “Smoke on the Mountain” “witty and refreshing.” It’s the musical comedy that has “22 foot-stompin’ songs, 1 set of twins, a murderous vat of pickles, the devil on highway 11, 17 blue-grass instruments, 1 pious dog, 2 headstrong Junebugs and a surprise a minute.”

Tickets are $10 and $12. The box office is open Monday through Friday 4 - 6 pm and to curtain time on show days. Call 715-735-4313 for reservations.
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