About First For Freedom Outdoor Drama

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Director's Notes:

I have been involved with this show over half of my life, and every year brings its own challenges and rewards. This year has been no different. Each time a "real" director leaves the drama it falls back to Frankie, "who can handle it." Well, I am not sure how well it would be handled if it were just me. Thanks to the cast of assistant directors, we have a performance for you!

Every year is a different show. That is why I have always told people that you should see it every year. Thank you for your support and I will ask each of you to get as least two other people to come this season. What you will be seeing tonight is not a group of professional actors, but a group of local people that want the story of the Halifax and the Roanoke Valley to be remembered and told. This story is important to us and, ultimately, to our nation.

One of the challenges this year, among the many, was a desire to take what former directors have added to the show and make it more of what Max Williams originally envisioned. This, our first year without his input, has been different. I only hope that he will look down and smile.

~ Frankie

CAST LIST FIRST FOR FREEDOM 2011

CAST

Narrator — Bill Mueller
Sam Picket — John Wesley Moore
Josie Hamilton — Morgan Cobb
Christopher Dudley — Richard Woodruff
Widow Eelbeck — Connie Cobb
George Hamilton — Vernon Bradley III
Rebecca — Emily Levesque
John Hamilton — Page Moore
Jonathan Lawson — Tommy Shaw
Gabby Joyner — Gabi Rooker
Looney Ooney — Holly Arbogast
Flora McDonald — Anne Shepard
Mary Jones — Melanie Wright
Elizabeth Ashe — Cheryl Levesque

DELEGATES

Alan Jones — Jim Lee
Samuel Johnston — Frank Ralph
Cornelius Harnett — Brian Lewis
Abner Nash — David Birdsong
Reverend Ford — Ben Shepard

TAVERN FOLK

Jesse Turner — Tony Wells
Thad Joyner — Mike Duhadaway, Sr.
Lulabelle — Jennifer Rooker

BRITISH

General Cornwallis — Brian Lewis
Banastre Tarleton — Vernon Bradley III

TOWNSPEOPLE

Emma Balmer
Noah Duhadaway
Letha P. King
Brianna Lewis
Rachel Moore
Brianna Vann

CREW

Director — Frankie King
Asst. Directors — the cast
Music Director — Jim Lee
Fight Coordinators — Vern Bradley & Tommy Shaw
Set Chief — Richard Woodruff
Set Construction — Holly Arbogast, Gus Cobb, Mike Dudhadway, Frankie King, Jim Lee, John Wesley Moore, Page Moore, Bill Mueller, Jennifer Rooker, Tommy Shaw, Richard Woodruff & Melanie Wright
Costumer—Carolyn Cicarello & Helen Holdford
Sound Set-up—Tony Dickens, Jim Lee, Brian Lewis, Tommy Shaw & Richard Woodruff
Lighting /Sound Techs— Haley Cobb & Stephen Colville

About the 4H Rural Life Center

The 4-H Rural Life Center was originally built by Halifax County in 1923 to be used as the County Home. In the mid 1950's, it was changed to a rest home where it remained in use until the early 1970's. Once the rest home closed, the center remained vacant until the early to mid 1980's when the Cooperative Extension Service decided to make it their 4-H Camp. After much work and renovation, it is today the 4-H Rural Life Center.