Gaslight Dinner Theatre plans longest run yet for Smoke on the Mountain

Release Date: 8/3/2006. Expired: 10/21/2006

It’s the summer of 1938 and the congregation of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in the hills of North Carolina is in for a special treat for its first revival. The pastor has invited the somewhat wacky Singing Sanders Family to get the spirit moving.

Join in the fun as the Gaslight Dinner Theatre of The Renaissance Center in Dickson presents the immensely popular Smoke on the Mountain Aug. 24-Oct. 21. Due to the tremendous popularity of this show, the Gaslight has extended its normal four-week show schedule to nine weeks because of the overwhelming demand for tickets. Smoke on the Mountain is sponsored by Tennsco.

Performances will be Fridays and Saturdays beginning with a dinner buffet at 6:30 p.m. and the show to follow. Tickets are $27 and include dinner, drink, dessert, tax and the performance.

Senior Matinees for patrons 55 and older will be Thursdays and Fridays beginning with a lunch buffet at 12 p.m. Tickets are $17 and include lunch, dink, dessert, tax and the show.

“This is the longest run of any show in the seven-year history of dinner theatre at The Renaissance Center,” said Pacer Harp, managing director of the Gaslight who will portray Rev. Mervin Oglethorpe, pastor of the church. “Even with 36 performances on the calendar, shows are selling out quickly.”

Smoke on the Mountain has become one of the most-performed shows in the country since its Off-Broadway debut at Lambs Theatre in New York in 1990.

“We’ve wanted to do Smoke on the Mountain for some time now and are excited to finally get the chance to bring it to the Gaslight Dinner Theatre,” said Hal Partlow, manager of the Renaissance Repertory Company who will be directing the show. “We’re sure the show will be so popular that we have already scheduled its sequel, A Sanders Family Christmas, for the 2007 holiday season.”

Conceived by Alan Bailey and written by Connie Ray with musical arrangements by Mike Craver and Mark Hardwick, Smoke on the Mountain includes more than two dozen songs, many of them vintage hymns that likely would have been part of a revival in the 1930s. From traditional favorites such as Bringing in the Sheaves and I’ll Fly Away to lesser-known hymns and bluegrass songs, the show has had audiences clapping along from coast to coast for more than 15 years.

“Part of the fun of this show is the fact that the cast plays its own instruments,” Partlow said. “That gives the audience even more of a feeling of being the congregation at the revival.”

And the hilarious stories and witnessing from the Sanders family members, who play their own instruments, keeps the congregation (you, the audience) in stitches with laughter.

Burl and Vera Sanders (Paul Kerr and Kiersten Vorheis) bring their three children and Burl’s brother Stanley (Alex Dittmer), who recently rejoined the family, to witness and sing at the revival. Burl, the owner of a local gas station, decides to take his family back on the road when business begins to fall off after a station down the road begins selling beer. Still suffering from the effects of the Great Depression, Mount Pleasant residents are becoming worried as the Mount Pleasant Pickle Plant, the area’s primary employer, begins laying off workers at an alarming rate.

Oldest child June Sanders (Katherine Jett), the only family member who doesn’t sing, provides her own service for the Lord’s flock by attempting to interpret the family’s songs and stories through her own style of sign language. Twins Dennis (Bryan J. Wlas) and Denise (Sara Schoch) are more different than identical with Denise more outgoing and Dennis tending towards shy.

The mixture of stories and songs keeps the audience either laughing or clapping along.

Paul Kerr is making his debut at The Renaissance Center with Smoke on the Mountain. He has directed or performed Smoke in some five other productions. Audiences around the country have enjoyed Kerr in national tours of Tintypes, The Pajama Game, Can Can, The Pirates of Penzance and most recently, the critically acclaimed 1776. No stranger to the South, Kerr has appeared at the Barn Dinner Theatre in Greensboro, N.C., the West End Theatre in Knoxville and North Carolina’s Elon University, where he taught and directed. Most recently Kerr appeared at Tibbits Opera House in Coldwater, Mi., where he appeared this summer as Bill Sykes in Oliver!, Teddy in Arsenic and Old Lace and Vince Fontane in Grease.

Kiersten Vorheis is appearing in her first show at The Renaissance Center. Two years ago Vorheis got her feet wet in gospel shows by playing Mary Ellen in He Keeps Me Singing at Cornwell’s Dinner Theatre in Marshall, Mi. Originally from Iowa and a graduate of Indiana University’s Department of Theatre and Drama, Vorheis has performed in theatres throughout the midwest. Some of her favorite roles include Angel in Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Wendy Jo in Footloose, Melissa in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Mrs. Peacock in Clue, and Mrs. Fezziwig in the national tour of A Christmas Carol. She is coming directly from Coldwater, Mi., at Tibbits Opera House, after playing a run of Widow Corney in Oliver!, Dragana in Beauty and the Beast, and Jan in Grease.

Alex Dittmer is a recent MFA graduate from Ohio University. He has been seen on stage and in commercials throughout the Midwest. Some of his favorite roles include Jinx in Forever Plaid!, Eddie in A View from a Bridge, Bobby in Company, Balthazar in Our Lady of 121st Street and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night. He is making his Gaslight Dinner Theatre debut.

Katherine Jett has appeared in the Gaslight Dinner Theatre productions of Nuncrackers, Anything Goes, The Miss Firecracker Contest and Run for Your Wife. She appeared in Renaissance Players productions of Guys and Dolls, Cinderella, The Wizard of Oz, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Annie Get Your Gun, The Sound of Music, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and A Christmas Carol, for which she won Best Actress in a Play. For the MET series, she has appeared in HONK!, Romeo and Juliet, The Complete Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (abridged), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, King of the Ice Cream Mountain, Young Cherokee and Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Pigs.

Bryan J. Wlas has appeared in two Gaslight Dinner Theatre productions with roles in Anything Goes and Nuncrackers and served as choreographer for My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra. He also appeared in the Renaissance Players production of Little Shop of Horrors, the MET series production of HONK! and was choreographer for Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr. A native of Woodridge, Ill., and a graduate of Millikin University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre and a Dance minor, his choreography also has been seen in Smokey Joe’s Caf&ecute; at Lees-McRae Summer Theatre in North Carolina, at Tweetsie Railroad, Bearcreek Farms Resort in Indiana and for the Millikin University Dance Concerts. As a performer he has traveled all over the country and Western Europe, performing in theme parks, on a cruise ship and at various regional theatres.

Sara Schoch originally hails from Cleveland, Ohio, and has been seen in numerous productions throughout the country. She appeared in the Gaslight Dinner Theatre productions of My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra and The Miss Firecracker Contest, and the Renaissance Players production of Guys and Dolls. Past roles include Mona in A Class Act, Minnie Fay in Hello, Dolly! at Mercury Summer Stock, Vi Petty in Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, Cathy in The Last Five Years, Squeaky Fromme in Assassins, and Cunegonde in Leonard Bernstein’s Candide at SUNY Fredonia. She can also be heard on the original concept recording of Jim Balmer and Jon Dorf’s musical, Day One, as Erika Golddigger. Schoch received a BFA in Musical Theatre from State University of New York at Fredonia.

Musical Director Nathan W. Brown has appeared in two Gaslight Dinner Theatre productions, having appeared in and been musical director for Nuncrackers and Anything Goes. Originally from Sterling, Ill., Nathan holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Illinois Wesleyan University. He served as resident Musical Director/Vocal Arranger for the Goodtimes Theatre in Indiana and has directed many a cappella groups and vocal jazz ensembles. He spent time in Florida where he was Music Director for the Stage Door Theatre’s productions of Hello, Dolly!, The Will Rogers Follies and Jekyll and Hyde. He has performed in featured roles in Forever Plaid, Grease, The Secret Garden, Fiddler on the Roof and the title role in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. He has performed at Dollywood and Hersheypark, and spent six months singing on a cruise ship touring Western Europe.

Pacer Harp is the managing director of the Gaslight Dinner Theatre and has appeared in 15 of its shows, including Forever Plaid!, Run for Your Wife, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, The Foreigner and Anything Goes. He has appeared in Renaissance Players productions of South Pacific and 1940s Radio Hour. Harp has directed 14 dinner theatre productions and community productions of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Guys and Dolls.

Hal Partlow is directing his 35th production at The Renaissance Center, including 10 dinner theatre shows and six community productions. He has performed in 31 productions since joining the center in 1999 and has performed professionally across the country for more than 20 years.

For more information on the Gaslight Dinner Theatre’s production of Smoke on the Mountain, call (615) 740-5600. To purchase tickets, call (615)740-5570.

The Renaissance Center is a fine 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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