Renaissance Players present hilarious Faith County May 13-29

Release Date: 4/14/2005. Expired: 5/29/2005

In Mineola, a small town located “somewhere in the middle of nowhere in the South,” a colorful collection of good ol’ country folk gather at the Faith County Fairgrounds for this year’s county fair. In a place where beehive hairdos are still the rage and Saturday nights are reserved for the tractor pulls, there’s still competition in the arts and crafts category and plenty of gossip to be found at the lemonade stand run by the ladies of the church.

The Renaissance Players present Faith County at The Renaissance Center in Dickson May 13-29. Shows are 7 p.m. May 13-14, 20-21, 27-28 and 2 p.m. May 15, 22 and 29. Tickets are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7 for children under 13.

In addition to the weekend performances, there will be a special Lunch Matinee of Faith County on Saturday, May 21. Tickets are $17 and include a buffet lunch served at noon followed by the afternoon matinee at 1 p.m. Tickets for the play only are $10.

Written by Mark Landon Smith, Faith County debuted in 1991 as a radio play and enjoyed a 35-week run on WLYX and was even featured on NBC’s Dateline.

“Faith County is a hilarious look at life in a small town in the South,” said Amy Scott, managing director of the Renaissance Players and director of Faith County. “Many people will see someone they know well in some of these characters and, while some of their quirks might seem outlandish, you’ll be nudging the person in the seat next to you with a knowing wink that says, ‘You know who that is just like.’”

As in many small, rural southern towns, the annual county fair is the center of cultural activity. The competition for ribbons is fierce, the lemonade stand dishes out as much gossip as cups of cooling drinks and nothing ever seems to go as planned. The chaos includes an unexpected death, a riotous wedding and an untimely birth.

The characters include the bossy gossip, the flirtatious poetess, the uptight preacher’s wife, the mayor’s wife who drinks too much, the hairstylist still crowing about winning the elementary spelling bee, the smitten pig farmer, the local mechanic, the gas jockey and the sweet, young and eternally pregnant country girl.

Smith has written eight plays, including Faith County II: An Evening of Culture, A Dickens of a Christmas Carol and Radio TBS (Trailer Park Broadcast Scandals). A teacher at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville, Ark., Smith earned his Masters of Fine Arts in Acting at the University of Arkansas, where he appeared in several productions. He served as founder and artistic director of the Actor’s Workshop Theatre Company, The Youth Repertory Theatre Company and Narcissus Productions, and as artist in residence with the Avery Children’s Theatre and Sager Creek Arts Center.

For more information on the Renaissance Players production of Faith County, call (615)740-5600. To purchase tickets for a weekend performance or the special Senior Lunch Matinee, call (615)740-5570.

The Renaissance Center is an arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

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