| The Reach of Song | |
|---|---|
 The 1996 cast of The Reach of Song | |
| Written by | Tom DeTitta |
| Characters | Byron Herbert Reece |
| Date premiered | 1989 |
| Place premiered | Hiawassee, Georgia |
| Genre | Historical drama |
| Setting | North Georgia |
The Reach of Song is Georgia's state drama written by Tom DeTitta. It depicts life in the Appalachian Mountains between World War I and World War II and follows the life and death of Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer Byron Herbert Reece. [1]
The two-act play premiered in 1989 in the Anderson Music Hall at the Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds in Hiawassee. In 1990, the Georgia General Assembly named it the state's official historic drama. [2] The play was staged for two months each summer at the fairgrounds until it moved to the Clegg Fine Arts Building at Young Harris College in Young Harris for the 1995 season. The drama was performed at the college annually through the mid-2000s. [3] The new venue was notable because Reece taught at the school and took his own life in his campus office in 1958. [4]
The Appalachian Trail, also called the A.T., is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost 2,200 miles (3,540 km) between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states. The Appalachian Trail Conservancy claims the Appalachian Trail to be the longest hiking-only trail in the world. More than three million people hike segments of the trail each year.
Blairsville is a city and the county seat of Union County, on the northern border of Georgia, United States. It was founded near the Nottely River, which was dammed in 1942 as part of the Tennessee Valley Authority project, forming Lake Nottely. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 616.
Johnson City is a city in Washington, Carter, and Sullivan counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee, mostly in Washington County. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 71,046, making it the eighth largest city in Tennessee. Johnson City is the principal city of the Johnson City Metropolitan Statistical Area, which consists of Carter, Unicoi, and Washington counties and had a population of 207,285 as of 2020. The MSA is also a component of the Tri-Cities region. This CSA is the fifth-largest in Tennessee with a population of 514,899 as of 2020.
Appalachia is a geographic region located in the central and southern sections of the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United States. It stretches from the western Catskill Mountains of New York state into Pennsylvania, continuing on through the Blue Ridge Mountains and Great Smoky Mountains into northern Georgia and Alabama. In 2021, the region was home to an estimated 26.3 million people, of whom roughly 80% were white.
Appalachian State University is a public university in Boone, North Carolina. It was founded as a teachers college in 1899 by brothers B. B. and D. D. Dougherty and the latter's wife, Lillie Shull Dougherty. The university expanded to include other programs in 1967 and joined the University of North Carolina System in 1971.
Western Maryland, also known as the Maryland Panhandle, is the portion of the U.S. state of Maryland that typically consists of Washington, Allegany, and Garrett counties. The region is bounded by Preston County, West Virginia, to the west, the Mason–Dixon line (Pennsylvania) to the north, and the Potomac River and West Virginia to the south. At one point, at the town of Hancock, the northern and southern boundaries are separated by just 1.8 miles, the narrowest stretch in the state.
West Virginia's folk heritage is a part of the Appalachian folk music tradition, and includes styles of fiddling, ballad singing, and other styles that draw on Ulster-Scots music.
Romulus Zachariah Linney IV was an American playwright and novelist.
Young Harris College is a private Methodist-affiliated liberal arts college in Young Harris, Georgia, United States.
The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is a United States federal–state partnership that works with the people of Appalachia to create opportunities for self-sustaining economic development and improved quality of life. Congress established ARC to bring the region into socioeconomic parity with the rest of the nation.
Appalachian music is the music of the region of Appalachia in the Eastern United States. Traditional Appalachian music is derived from various influences, including the ballads, hymns and fiddle music of the British Isles, the African music and blues of early African Americans, and to a lesser extent the music of Continental Europe.
Blood Mountain is the highest peak on the Georgia section of the Appalachian Trail and the sixth-tallest mountain in Georgia, with an elevation of 4,458 feet (1,359 m). It is located on the border of Lumpkin County with Union County and is within the boundaries of the Chattahoochee National Forest and the Blood Mountain Wilderness. There are several waterfalls, hiking trails and other recreational areas in the vicinity. This mountain marks the southernmost range limit for many Northern and Appalachian species, especially for plant species.
Vogel State Park is a 233-acre (0.94 km2) or 94 hectares state park located at the base of Blood Mountain in the Chattahoochee National Forest. It became one of the first two parks in Georgia when it founded a state park system in 1931. Much of the park was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the 1930s.
Central Georgia, or Middle Georgia and the Heart of Georgia, is an eleven-county region in the U.S. state of Georgia. It abuts the Atlanta metropolitan area, just to the north, and is anchored by both the Macon and Warner Robins metropolitan areas.
Jack is an English hero and archetypal stock character appearing in multiple legends, fairy tales, and nursery rhymes.
Byron Herbert Reece was an American poet and novelist. During his life, he published four volumes of poetry and two volumes of fiction.
The Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds, which opened in 1978, is home to several popular events throughout the year including the Georgia Mountain Fair, Georgia Mountain Moonshine Cruiz-In, Georgia Mountain Fall Festival, Superstar concerts, and Georgia's Official State Fiddlers' Convention. Located on a 161-acre (0.65 km2) tact along the shores of Lake Chatuge in the north Georgia mountain community of Hiawassee, the Fairgrounds offers a glimpse into the past with its historic Pioneer Village, an expansive and comfortable music venue in the Anderson Music Hall, the Hamilton Rhododendron Gardens and 189 RV camp sites with lake views and modern conveniences.
The Appalachian region and its people have historically been stereotyped by observers, with the basic perceptions of Appalachians painting them as backwards, rural, and anti-progressive. These widespread, limiting views of Appalachia and its people began to develop in the post-Civil War; Those who "discovered" Appalachia found it to be a very strange environment, and depicted its "otherness" in their writing. These depictions have persisted and are still present in common understandings of Appalachia today, with a particular increase of stereotypical imagery during the late 1950s and early 1960s in sitcoms. Common Appalachian stereotypes include those concerning economics, appearance, and the caricature of the "hillbilly."
Bettie M. Sellers was an American poet known for her poems about nature, especially about the North Georgia and Southern Appalachia region.
Tom DeTitta is an American playwright. He has written 12 plays, including Georgia's official state historical drama, The Reach of Song.