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Keep on the Sunny Side Brings the Music of the Original Carter Family Back to Barter!

Abingdon, Va.— Barter Theatre’s all-time most requested show, Keep on the Sunny Side: The Songs and Story of the Original Carter Family featuring Eugene Wolf as A. P. Carter, comes home to Barter Theatre for only four weeks beginning April 24, 2008. Tickets are sure to go fast for this production, so don’t delay and make your reservations today!

Keep on the Sunny Side features the popular, heartfelt songs that you love to sing brilliantly interwoven into what many call “the love story that began country music.” Follow along as local playwright Douglas Pote takes us back to experience Sara and A. P.’s first meeting, the famous Bristol Session Recordings and Janette’s vow to keep her family’s music alive. Once again featuring the talented Eugene Wolf, Keep on the Sunny Side, this heart-warming story features favorites such as “Gold Watch and Chain,” “My Clinch Mountain Home,” “Church in the Wildwood,” “Will the Circle be Unbroken,” and, of course, “Keep on the Sunny Side.”

Originally produced as part of Barter Theatre’s Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights, Keep on the Sunny Side: The Songs and Story of the Original Carter Family honors our region’s rich and unique musical heritage. Before coming back to Barter, Keep on the Sunny Side will be performed at The Carter Family Fold, April 17 - 19.

Joining Wolf in this award-winning production are music legend Joy Lynn White as Maybelle, Jill Anderson from Barter’s Almost Heaven as Sara and Kimberly Mays from Barter’s productions of Man of Constant Sorrow, Steel Magnolias and Pump Boys and Dinettes, as Janette. Musicians Buddy Woodward of the Dixie Bee-Liners and Peter Barent Lewis round out the cast directed by Nicholas Piper.

The State Theatre of Virginia, the world famous Barter Theatre is celebrating its 75th anniversary season of producing professional non-profit theatre in the Appalachian Region. Known for outstanding musicals, comedies, dramas, new and Appalachian works and award-winning educational programming, Barter Theatre, Barter Stage II and The Barter Players present programs several times a week, and patrons can see up to five shows in two days in beautiful downtown Abingdon. Don’t miss a moment in Barter’s yearlong celebration!

Keep on the Sunny Side is sponsored by Central Coal Company; Arrington, Schelin & Herrell, PC; Birthplace of Country Music Alliance; East Tennessee Medical News; Richlands News-Press and WBRF 98.1 FM. Contact Barter’s Box Office at (276) 628-3991 or www.bartertheatre.com <http://www.bartertheatre.com> for more information and tickets.

Who: Barter Theatre
What: Keep on the Sunny Side
When: April 24 – May 24, 2008
Where: Barter Theatre
How Much: Tickets for Keep on the Sunny Side: The Songs and Story of the Original Carter Family are $ 27.50, 29.75 and $36.75
 Student Rate - $13.50.

PHOTO CAPTION: An audience favorite production is back at Barter Theatre! Keep on the Sunny Side: The Songs and Story of the Original Carter Family, featuring Joy Lynn White, Eugene Wolf and Jill Anderson, is playing for a limited time beginning April 24. For tickets or more information contact Barter Theatre’s box office at (276) 628-3991 or www.bartertheatre.com.


Interview Contact:
Courtney E. Bledsoe | Associate Director of Marketing
BARTER THEATRE
160 Cummings Street, Abingdon, VA 24210 / PO Box 867, Abingdon, VA 24212-0867
Phone • 276.619.3343
Cell • 423.829.8050
Fax • 276.619.3335
E-mail • communication@bartertheatre.com
Visit our website at http://www.bartertheatre.com
Box Office • 276.628.3991
A professional nonprofit theatre company founded in 1933.

BARTER THEATRE. With its unique beginnings during the Great Depression, Barter Theatre, one of this nation’s oldest professional non-profit theatres, is located in beautiful historic Abingdon, Virginia. Barter Theatre is a theatre of firsts; one of this nation’s first professional regional theatres, the first professional theatre to be designated a state theatre – The State Theatre of Virginia and more. Today, Barter offers a variety of musicals, classics, comedies, dramas and new southern and Appalachian plays performed February – December yearly on two stages: Barter Theatre and Barter Stage II. Barter Theatre continues to be one of the nation’s most vibrant and exciting professional theatre experiences.