Local Playwright Presents The Songs of Robert August 12

Performance Is Benefit for Student Scholarships

Playwright John Crutchfield plays a dozen different characters in his play The Songs of Robert on Wednesday, August 12, at ASU’s Valborg Theatre. Photo by Lauren Abe

ASU’s Department of Theatre and Dance will sponsor a benefit performance Wednesday, August 12, to raise funds for student scholarships and support the work of local playwright John Crutchfield.

Crutchfield’s play The Songs of Robert will be performed at 8:00 p.m. in Valborg Theatre on the ASU campus. All tickets are $15.

The show combines original poetry, choreography, live music on banjo and guitar and a menagerie of unforgettable characters to tell the story of Robert, a high school boy growing up in a small Southern Appalachian town.

In addition to the usual perils of high school—insane guidance counselors, sadistic assistant principals and megalomaniacal class poets—Robert also is caught up in the surreal world of being in love for the first time. All told, Crutchfield plays a dozen different characters and performs songs ranging from old-time to Delta blues—all of it with a mischievous vaudeville twist. The show is appropriate for all ages.

Crutchfield grew up in Boone and first experienced theatre at Hardin Park Elementary School. He earned degrees from UNC-Chapel Hill and Cornell University, returning to his hometown in 2001 to teach creative writing and literature at ASU. In 2006, he relocated to Asheville, where he now works professionally in theatre and teaches at Warren Wilson College.

 “The Songs of Robert has a long history,” Crutchfield said. “It basically tracks my own history as a playwright.” The play began in 1998 as a collection of Crutchfield’s poems, which his friend, director Eric Johnson (also from Boone), helped turn into a verse play for an ensemble of actors.

Later, Crutchfield developed a two-actor version that premiered in 2004 at Watauga High School, with subsequent productions at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and Blowing Rock Stage Company. Last September, Crutchfield premiered the latest incarnation of the play, a one-man-show, at NC Stage in Asheville. “I’m excited to bring the show back to Boone, since this is where it all began,” Crutchfield said.

This project is partially funded as a cooperative venture of Alleghany Arts Council, Ashe County Arts Council, Watauga Arts Council and Cultural Arts Council of Wilkes, with support from a Regional Artist Project Grant of the North Carolina Arts Council, a state agency.

The August 12 benefit performance will help send the show to the 2009 New York International Fringe Festival, the largest multi-arts festival in North America. The festival features more than 200 companies from around the world performing for 16 days and an annual audience of more than 75,000.

“I was actually pretty surprised to get the acceptance letter,” Crutchfield said. “The competition is fierce.” Crutchfield’s play will be performed in the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center’s Milagro Theatre in New York City.

For tickets or more information, call the Valborg Box Office at 828-262-3063. For more information about The Songs of Robert or Crutchfield, click to www.johncrutchfield.com.

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