 Barter Theare | |
| Formation | 1933 |
|---|---|
| Type | Theatre group |
| Location |
|
Artistic director(s) | Katy Brown |
| Website | www |
Barter Theatre, in Abingdon, Virginia, opened on June 10, 1933. It is the longest-running professional Equity theatre in the United States. [1]
| Barter Theare | |
| Formation | 1933 |
|---|---|
| Type | Theatre group |
| Location |
|
Artistic director(s) | Katy Brown |
| Website | www |
Barter Theatre, in Abingdon, Virginia, opened on June 10, 1933. It is the longest-running professional Equity theatre in the United States. [1]
In 1933, when the United States was in the middle of the Great Depression, many people could not afford to pay for theater tickets, and many actors had trouble finding employment. A review by Paul Dellinger in the December 17, 2006 issue of The Roanoke Times summarized the situation as follows:
But Broadway was not doing so much swinging during the Depression, when theaters went dark and actors found themselves out of work. Back in Porterfield's part of Virginia, farmers were stuck with crops they couldn't sell. That was when Porterfield came up with his genius of an idea, bringing actors to Abingdon to barter their performances for farm goods. [2]
Beginning with "some twenty of his fellow actors", [3] Robert Porterfield, founder of the theatre, offered admission by letting the local people pay with food goods, hence the name "Barter". He said, "With vegetables that you cannot sell you can buy a good laugh." [4]
The original ticket price for a play was 30 cents, or the equivalent in goods. [5] Referring to the barter concept, an article in Life magazine's July 31, 1939, issue reported, "What sounded like the craziest idea in the history of the U.S. theater is now a booming success." [6]
Actors were kept very busy, even when they did not have parts in current plays. They contributed to the theatre's overall success by working on scenery, collecting props, directing and working in the cafeteria at the Barter Inn, where members of the troupe boarded. [7]
Barter Theatre's first production was After Tomorrow by John Golden. [8] An Associated Press news story reported that the production "was played to a capacity audience that came laden with cakes, fruit, vegetables, poultry" and a live pig. [5]
While remaining based in Abingdon, Barter Theatre has presented plays over a broad geographical area. A September 1939 trip took the group to New York City, performing at the Heckscher Theater. On three nights the troupe presented Lady Baltimore, Everywhere I Roam, and "a mountain version of Romeo and Juliet". [9] In 1949, one of its companies produced Hamlet in Elsinore, Denmark. That same year it had a touring company that did one-night stands in localities in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina. [7]
In 1993, the First Light Players were founded, a troupe within the Barter dedicated to theatre for young audiences. Today, they live on as the Barter Players, bringing live theatre to young audiences across under-served regions in the South and East coast. [10]
In 2014 the Barter Theatre and the William King Art Center collaborated to produce an art exhibition by Abingdon artists affiliated with the two institutions. [11]
Initially, the theatre's plays were performed in the Abingdon Opera House, and actors stayed at the Martha Washington Inn. [12] In 1935, it moved to the campus of the defunct Stonewall Jackson College for Women. The 1939 article in Life reported that the actors received no pay but were fed well and were housed in the former college's dormitories. The troupe produced plays in the auditorium on the campus. Productions branched out into the surrounding area after three nights on campus, going "on a ten-day tour of mountain towns and resorts in an ancient bus widely known as 'Bessie.'" [6]
The facility in which actors stayed became known as the Barter Inn. Besides housing members of the theatre, the inn offered a limited number of reservations for the public, which provided an opportunity for people to eat with the actors in the inn's cafeteria. [13] In 1950, novelist James Hilton purchased "several acres of land adjoining the Barter Theater [sic] ... to protect the view from the Barter Inn" after the property had been advertised as being available for building sites. [14]
In 1996, a $1.7 million renovation of the building was completed. The depth of the stage was increased from 28 feet to 60 feet. New lighting and sound systems were installed, and the heating and air-conditioning systems were upgraded. The balcony was extended to provide more seats and a better view from that level. [15]
Today, Barter is one of the last year-round professional resident repertory theaters remaining in the United States.
The current building, originally Sinking Springs Presbyterian Church [16] built in 1833, is the second-oldest theatrical building in the United States. In 1953, its interior was renovated with fittings from the Empire Theatre in New York. [8] The seats from that renovation were later replaced with seats from the Jefferson Theatre in Falls Church, Virginia, after it closed. [17]
Each year, Barter Theatre celebrates its heritage with Barter Days. For these performances, patrons are invited to barter for admission by bringing the equivalent amount of canned food. All food is donated to a local charity. [18]
Porterfield served as director until his death in 1971. Rex Partington was selected as the next artistic director, serving from 1972 to 1992. From 1992-2019, Richard Rose has served as the Barter Theatre's third artistic director. In 2019, Katy Brown, the longtime director of the Barter Players, took over as the fourth and first female artistic director. The Barter's continued success under their leadership made it the first regional theater "to survive the passing of its founder." [2]
Many well-known stars of stage, screen, and television have performed early in their careers at Barter, including Gregory Peck, Ernest Borgnine, Patricia Neal, Ned Beatty, Hume Cronyn, Gary Collins, Frances Fisher, Larry Linville, John Glover, Jim Varney, and Wayne Knight. Will Bigham, the 2007 winner of On The Lot, acted at Barter Theatre for several years.
The theatre is located within the Abingdon Historic District. The main theatre (named Gilliam Stage) has 505 seats with 216 of those in the balcony, [19] and Barter Stage II (Named Smith Theatre) has 167. [20]
Starting in 2020, the theatre has been producing plays and staging them at the Moonlite Theatre. [21] Plays are performed on a stage while being simultaneously projected on the big screen. Seating in cars allows for social distancing and audio is provided through car radios. [22] This was begun to allow staging of plays with coronavirus precautions in place and plays were produced there from July 2020 through December 2021. [23] Indoor performances resumed at Gilliam Stage in September 2021, with protocols in place to keep actors, staff, crew, and audience as safe as possible during the ongoing pandemic. [23]
In 1939, the theatre first presented the Barter Theatre Award "for the outstanding performance by an American player." [27] The initial recipient was Laurette Taylor, and the 1940 award went to Dorothy Stickney. Each winner received an acre of mountain land near Abingdon and a Virginia ham and selected two actors to perform with the theatre. [27] The deed to the land was transferred from Taylor to Stickney at the award ceremony for the latter. [28]
Abingdon is a town in Washington County, Virginia, United States, 133 miles (214 km) southwest of Roanoke. The population was 8,376 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Washington County. The town encompasses several historically significant sites and features a fine arts and crafts scene centered on the galleries and museums along Main Street.
Glade Spring is a town in Washington County, Virginia, United States. The population was 1,456 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Kingsport–Bristol (TN)–Bristol (VA) Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is a component of the Johnson City–Kingsport–Bristol, TN-VA Combined Statistical Area – commonly known as the "Tri-Cities" region. I-81 runs through Glade Spring. It is located at exit 29.
Howard Lindsay, born Herman Nelke, was an American playwright, librettist, director, actor and theatrical producer. He is best known for his writing work as part of the collaboration of Lindsay and Crouse, and for his performance, with his wife Dorothy Stickney, in the long-running play Life with Father.
Austin Campbell Pendleton is an American actor, playwright, theatre director, and instructor.
Dorothy Stickney was an American film, stage, and television actress, best known for appearing in the long-running Broadway hit Life with Father.
The Martha Washington Inn is a historic hotel located in Abingdon, Virginia. Originally built in 1832 by General Francis Preston, hero of the War of 1812, for his family of nine children, over the course of the last 174 years, the building has served as an upscale women's college, a Civil War hospital and barracks, and as a residence for visiting actors of the Barter Theatre. In addition to hotel services, the inn now offers spa treatments. Many people say the house might be haunted by ghosts from the area.
John Ericson was a German-born American actor. He was known primarily for his television work, notably as private detective Sam Bolt on the ABC series Honey West (1965–66), and his roles in several MGM films of the 1950s.
U.S. Route 11 (US 11) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway in western Virginia. At 339 miles (546 km), it is the second longest numbered route and longest primarily north–south route in the state. It enters the state from Tennessee as the divided routes US 11E and US 11W at Bristol, roughly follows the West Virginia border through the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley, and enters the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia from Frederick County. Most of the route closely parallels I-81. From south to north, US 11 serves the cities and towns of Bristol, Abingdon, Wytheville, Pulaski, Radford, Christiansburg, Roanoke, Lexington, Staunton, Harrisonburg, Strasburg, and Winchester. As one of the original U.S. Highways, it was first designated through Virginia in 1926 and has largely followed the same route since. Prior to the construction of the Interstate Highway System, it was the primary long-distance route for traversing the western part of the state. Much of it roughly follows the Great Wagon Road, a colonial-era road that followed the Appalachian Mountains from Georgia to Pennsylvania.
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Grant Williams was an American film, theater, and television actor. He is best remembered for his portrayal of Scott Carey in the science fiction film The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), and for his starring role as Greg MacKenzie on Hawaiian Eye from 1960 through 1963.
Robert Huffard Porterfield was an American actor and theatre director who was best known for founding the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. The theatre was founded in 1933 during the Great Depression. In 1941, it was designated as the State Theatre of Virginia, but with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America entering World War II, the grant promised by the Commonwealth's legislature was put off. Young men either enlisted or were drafted into the U.S. military, and the theatre went dark from 1942 to 1945. Porterfield, too, was drafted. He returned to Abingdon in 1946 to reopen the theatre. As promised in 1941, the legislature came through with a $10,000 grant. Porterfield served as artistic director of the year-round repertory theatre until his death in 1971. His most prominent, credited film role was in the 1941 film Sergeant York in which he portrayed Zeb Andrews, a local rival of the title character played by Gary Cooper.
Mill Mountain Theatre (MMT) is a regional theater located at Roanoke, Virginia. Established in 1964, the institution originally performed out of the former Rockledge Inn located atop Mill Mountain in the city. That location was destroyed by fire in 1976, leading to the theater's eventual re-opening in the Center in the Square arts and culture hub in 1983.
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Rex Partington was an actor, director and producer. Partington worked in the professional theater in the United States for over fifty years as an actor, production stage manager, director, producer, artistic director and producing director and was active on Broadway as well as professional regional theater. He was instrumental in the establishment of the League of Resident Theatres and played a vital role in the development of regional theater.
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The Empire Theatre in New York City was a prominent Broadway theatre in the first half of the twentieth century.
The Moonlite Theatre, also known as the Moonlite Drive-In, is a historic drive-in theater located near Abingdon, Washington County, Virginia. It was built and opened in 1949, and remained one of the few drive-ins still open in Virginia until finally closing in 2013. The theater reopened briefly in 2016 but closed shortly after due to a pending lawsuit. Remaining original buildings and structures include the 65-foot-tall screen tower and office wing, the ticket booth, the concession stand/projector booth building, and the neon-illuminated attraction board at the edge of the highway. The theatre includes 454 parking/viewing spaces designed as reverse-incline ramps.
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Barter Theatre.
36°42′44″N81°58′17″W / 36.71226°N 81.97131°W
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