Barbara Bates Smith Will Perform at Lime Kiln, Lexington, Virginia, 8/7

On Saturday, August 7th award-winning actress Barbara Bates Smith will perform her show B. Smith Does Lee Smith, featuring several characters by the Virginia native and Hollins University graduate.

B. Smith Does Lee Smith highlights three stories from Lee Smith's newest book, Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger, with music, anecdotes, and vignettes from novels as well. Featured characters are a newspaper columnist, a feisty nursing home resident, a teenager bent on salvation, and a brash country singer, among others - all with a flair for storytelling.

"The two Smiths seem made for each other," cites the Asheville Citizen-Times. Lee Smith has said, "I am Barbara's most avid fan and groupie." Smith's other adaptations of Lee Smith's works are "Ivy Rowe," "On Agate Hill," and "The Christmas Letters."

Also on tour are Smith's original monologues "The C-Word: A Life-meets-Art Cancer Story" and "Confessions of a Clergy Wife." Winner of the 2003 Southeastern Theatre Conference Best Actress award, Smith has recently played featured roles in regional productions of Wit, Hamlet and Doubt.

North Carolina novelist Lee Smith has written twelve novels, including the best-seller The Last Girls. 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.

"Lee is an important author for, among other things, interpreting the Western Virginia experience. We are proud to have produced several of her stories in the past." said Lime Kiln Executive Director Kim Renz. This event showcases a talented actress portraying several of her most memorable female characters."

Smith's website is barbarabatessmith.com. Tickets are on sale at the Lexington Visitors Center at 106 East Washington Street, online at theateratlimekiln.com or by calling the Lime Kiln Office at 540-463-7088.