Mitford play adaptation to be published

The staff at the Blowing Rock Stage Company, still happy to be chosen the Best Professional Theatre in North Carolina for 2008 by the N.C. Theatre Conference, now has something else to crow about.

“An important part of the stage company’s mission as professional theatre has always been the development and production of new plays and musicals that reflect the history, culture and artistic traditions of the High Country and North Carolina,” said Kenneth Kay, executive and producing artistic director of the Hayes Performing Arts Center and the Blowing Rock Stage Company.

Since its beginnings in 1986, BRSC produced 26 regional and world premieres. Many of these plays have gone on to be published and produced elsewhere.

Now word comes that the last two of these world premieres, Robert Inman’s A High Country Christmas Carol, produced in 2008, and Jan Karon’s Journey to Mitford, Inman’s adaptation of Karon’s best-selling Mitford series and produced in 2007, will be published by Dramatic Publishing and will become available for licensing to theatres around the country.

Jan Karon’s Journey to Mitford (which will be published officially as Mitford) and A High Country Christmas Carol account for numbers four and five of plays written by Inman that have received their world premieres at the stage company. The first was the musical comedy, Crossroads, in 2003. The remaining two, Dairy Queen Days (2007) and The Christmas Bus (2003), have also been published by Dramatic Publishing.

“That kind of success is just unprecedented,” Kay said. “I am very proud of our artistic team. In particular, the production of Jan Karon’s Journey to Mitford represents a major artistic benchmark of this ongoing work.”

When asked to comment, Karon remarked, “Robert Inman and the Blowing Rock Stage Company took nine Mitford novels and compressed them into a marvelous evening of laughter, pathos and delight. Hats off to them!”

Since Journey to Mitford’s record-breaking run at the Hayes Center in Blowing Rock, the staff has received literally dozens of call and requests to remount the play.

“We’ve also fielded a lot of calls from other theatre companies wanting to produce their own production of Mitford,” Kay said. “We even got a call from a group in Seattle.”

Added Inman, “The great joy for me is knowing that a lot of theatre-goers all over the country will now be able to enjoy Jan’s marvelous story.”

“We are very proud of what we were able to accomplish with Mitford and the rest of Bob’s plays,” Kay said. “He is a great collaborator and the response to his work has been overwhelmingly positive.”

On the subject of a return engagement of Mitford, Kay said, “If all goes well, we may see Father Tim and Cynthia and the rest of the good folks of Mitford back on our stage in 2011.”

Meanwhile, the stage company continues to look for good stories that have theatrical potential. Currently in the works is a new play about world-renowned artist and former Blowing Rock resident Elliott Daingerfield.

“We haven’t commissioned a playwright yet,” Kay said, “but you can bet we’ll be talking to Mr. Inman.”

The Blowing Rock Stage Company produces all shows in the Hayes Performing Arts Center, located at 152 Jamie Fort Road (off U.S. 321) in Blowing Rock. For more information, call (828) 295-9627.