Sierra Madre Playhouse and S.M. Public Library Present BACK PORCH

As a companion event to Sierra Madre Public Library's One Book One City program, encouraging the entire community to read A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by travel writer Bill Bryson, Sierra Madre Playhouse, in a collaboration with the Library, is presenting a virtual reading of the short story Back Porch by Chris Offutt .

Back Porch is included in the anthology Appalachia Now: Short Stories of Contemporary Appalachia (Bottom Dog Press, 2015).

Ruby decades ago fled Kentucky to live in the desert of New Mexico, where she lived on her own terms. Now elderly and infirm, she finds herself called back to her childhood home in the Appalachian hills. She is of the hills. She is drawn to return. She is driven from the airport by Charley, a local who has never left the area. Charley is in for some surprises. Ruby is keeping an appointment with destiny.

Ruby and Charley are portrayed by two Sierra Madre Playhouse favorites: Anne Gee Byrd (The Final Tour; Winner of Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for All My Sons; I Never Sang for My Father; Four Places) and Jackson Kendall (Tuesdays with Morrie; A Christmas Story). Narration is provided by the author, Chris Offutt.

Offutt was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1958. He has written collections of short stories (Kentucky Straight; Out of the Woods); novels (The Good Brother; Country Dark); and memoirs (The Same River Twice; No Heroes: A Memoir of Coming Home; My Father, the Pornographer). He has also written for television (True Blood; Weeds) and for comic books. He is visiting faculty at University of Mississippi.

Back Porch is adapted and directed by Sierra Madre Playhouse Artistic Director Christian Lebano and produced by Catherine Adde.

The virtual reading of Back Porch will be presented via You Tube Premiere on Monday, February 22, 2021 at 7:00 p.m. PST, followed at 7:30 with a live Q&A with the author, director and cast via Zoom webinar. Admission is free, but reservations are required, and space for the Q&A is limited. You can register for the reading and talkback at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35040/production/1038749

Although the event is free, donations are gratefully appreciated. You can donate at https://ci.ovationtix.com/35040/store/donations/39449

Sierra Madre Playhouse is a non-profit arts organization, and donations permit us to continue providing artistic programs.

Back Porch is part of an ongoing series of literary adaptations by Sierra Madre Playhouse called Off the Shelf.