Ivy Rowe Inaugurates Chenango River Theatre’s New One Night Stands 7/25

On Monday, July 25th, Ivy Rowe, the play adapted and performed over 800 times nationally by Barbara Bates Smith from the novel Fair and Tender Ladies, will be presented by Chenango River Theatre at 7:30pm. Musical accompaniment is by Jeff Sebens. This show is the first of a new series of one night performances featuring guest artists at the area's fully professional, non-profit theatre company.

Noted for her Off-Broadway performance of Ivy Rowe, recounting the passionate life of a spunky mountain woman, Barbara's twenty-year touring of this one-person show has included the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The Village Voice said of the New York production: "A lifetime's worth of sass, whoop, hurt, and reflection." WOR Radio commented: "We are captivated and enthralled" and Variety simply said: "Both funny and heartbreaking."

Ivy Rowe, the feisty born-with-the-century mountain woman is probably Lee Smith's most beloved character, drawn from her most beloved book (Lee knows of at least eleven babies who have been named Ivy). In this stage version, Ivy takes us, in a flashback, through a lifetime of letters depicting her passionate life of "livin' on love." With a penchant for storytelling, she paints a vivid picture of twentieth-century Appalachian revivals, mine disasters, rural electrification, the Depression, two world wars and Vietnam. We relish her stand against the coal company's bulldozer, defending her home place.

Winner of the 2003 Southeastern Theatre Conference Best Actress award, Barbara has recently played featured roles in regional productions of Wit, Hamlet and Doubt.

Prize-winning North Carolina novelist Lee Smith has written twelve novels, including best-seller The Last Girls, the ever-popular Oral History and four collections of short stories. Literary awards have included the Lila Wallace/ Readers' Digest Award, the Southern Book Critics Circle Award, and the Fiction Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The actress's website is: www.barbarabatessmith.com.

Barbara's other stage adaptations of Lee Smith's works are On Agate Hill, The Christmas Letters, and the sampler B. Smith Does Lee Smith, highlighting stories from Lee's most recent collection Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger. Barbara also tours with her own monologues The C-Word: Her Own Cancer Story and Confessions of a Clergy Wife and Our Own Stories.

There will be a brief Talk Back with the actress after the performance where she will field questions from the audience.

Tickets to this one-time event are just $10. Only 50 seats are available. The 24 Hour Reservation Line accepts reservations at any time at 607-656-8499 (TIXX). Tickets may be charged to MasterCard, Visa or Discover. All performances start on time - late seating is not available. The box office opens one half hour before curtain. Visit www.chenangorivertheatre.org for a complete schedule and more information.

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