Boone’s oldest drama,

‘Horn in the West,’ returns
By Frank Ruggiero c/o MountainTimes

It’s a show 58 years in the making.

The High Country’s very own outdoor drama, Horn in the West, sounds off for its 58th season on Friday, June 19.

Horn in the West is a Revolutionary War drama, written by Kermit Hunter to focus on the settlers who first occupied the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Horn tells the tale of the Stuart family, whose patriarch, Dr. Geoffrey Stuart, has left Great Britain with his family to join the Carolina Colony, where he intends to study smallpox.

It’s not long until Stuart finds himself embroiled in the politics and bloodshed of revolution, for his son, Jack, fights alongside a band of colonial revolutionaries, only to be defeated and forced into hiding.

Stuart is torn between his allegiance to the crown and to his family, but ends up joining a group of freedom-seeking pioneer families, led by none other than Daniel Boone.

While the American Revolution rages throughout the fledgling nation, life in the Blue Ridge Mountains seems untouched by the fires of war, until Stuart’s village receives an ultimatum from a British colonel.

A band of villagers decides to rise against the colonel, who has vowed to storm the mountain region should the settlers oppose, and Stuart is faced with a moral and life-changing dilemma – stick to his loyalist beliefs or fight alongside his newfound compatriots.

Returning is Wes Martin as Daniel Boone, Jenny Cole as the Widow Howard, Darrell King as the Rev. Sims, Andrew Ray as Geoffrey Stuart and Jenn Mears as Martha Stuart.

Production staff includes Susan Lutz as choreographer and David Courreges as music director and sound designer. Julie Richardson takes the director’s chair again, bringing new scenes to promise a season of surprises.

Also returning is production stage manager Michelle Johnson, who was Horn’s first female pyro-technician in 1998. She reprised that role in 2003, and then served as assistant director and production stage manager in 2004.

She returns for a season that boasts one of the more historically accurate versions of the story. “They did a lot of script revisions, putting in a great deal more of actual history,” Johnson said of director Julie Richardson and actor Ed Pilkington, who painstakingly researched the historic events surrounding the drama, such as a British treaty with the Cherokee Indians, in which gunpowder, lead and musket training were awarded to the Native Americans to fight the settlers.

“So, this is where we get the great conflict in this show, where the British tried to get the Cherokee on their side to crush the rebellion, so that adds a nice layer to the total conflict,” Johnson said, adding that Richardson is also incorporating more of the Cherokee language into the production.

Based on a script more than 50 years old, Richardson and Pilkington have written a production more historically accurate and respectful to those on whom the characters are based. For instance, Courreges has included period music, and Lutz has choreographed the dances accordingly.

“We’re trying to give a slice of what life actually looked like back then, like whether or not Jack and Mary (Greene) could even hold hands before getting married,” Johnson said. “These fictional characters are there to represent what these settlers really went through in their struggle for freedom. It’s an inspiring job to go back and tell people about them. They ran, they fought, they died and they struggled to found a country. It’s an honor to be a part of it.”

If the Horn’s a slice of life, then the Hickory Ridge Homestead is a postcard from the past. A living history museum, the homestead consists of period cabins, some dating back to the 18th century. Visitors can explore the cabins and a museum to catch a glimpse of day-to-day life in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, while also watching reenactments, demonstrations and even earning the chance to participate themselves.
It’s curator Dave Davis’s job to make sure their journey through time is fruitful and, most importantly, authentic.

“This is everybody’s introduction to the show,” said Virginia Roseman, SAHA’s public relations director.
Roseman encourages folks to arrive at least an hour early to the show, so they might enjoy the homestead and gain a better understanding of the characters they’re about to see on stage.

Davis helped start the homestead in 1976 and has returned more than 30 years later to renew its educational aspects.

“When I consulted on the cabin last year, people had a vision of the way they thought things are supposed to look like, like they see on TV,” Davis said of the Tatum Cabin, the museum’s oldest structure, dating back to around 1760. “Here, everything is the real thing. You have to put yourself in the place of a person in the 1700s, then look at your home and the way you leave things.”

This could be a potholder on a pan, a crumpled cloth napkin on the table, or a nightgown draped over a hook.
“When you look at the Tatum Cabin, it looks like someone just walked out of it 200 years ago, and that’s what living history is,” Davis said.

In the near future, Davis said he hopes to incorporate more interactivity in the museum, offering “craft” workshops for both adults and children, for what people consider crafts today were actual ways of life for settlers.

The museum opens at 5 p.m., prior to each Horn production. The show runs from June 19 through Aug. 5, Tuesday through Sunday, at 8 p.m., with gates opening at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets for “Horn in the West” cost $18 for adults and $9 for children. Discounted adult and children tickets are $16 and $8, accordingly. AAA, AARP, military and SEANC discounts will be honored.

For tickets and more information, call (828) 264-2120 or visit www.horninthewest.com on the Web. The theater and museum are located at 591 Horn in the West Drive in Boone.

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