Barter Theatre to Kick Off 2013 Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights, 7/5

Barter Theatre announces the finalists for the 13th annual Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights (AFPP) to be held July 5-12 at Barter Stage II. Admission is free. Eight new plays have been selected for Barter's new play festival that is dedicated to giving voice to the stories and playwrights of Appalachia.

This unique festival allows audiences the rare opportunity to take an active role in the development of new works by hearing plays read for the first time by professional actors and then offering feedback to help playwrights further develop their work.

Barter's AFPP provides a direct route for new plays to be developed from readings to full productions. Barter Theatre has consistently produced plays each year as a result of the festival process. This season alone Barter will fully produce three plays from last year's festival including Catherine Bush's Walking Across Egypt, Ruth Tyndall Baker's Half A World Away, and Sean Parker's Thicker Than Water. In fact, some of Barter's most popular plays such as Keep on the Sunny Side: The Songs and Stories of the Carter Family have been developed through this festival.

"I'm very excited about this year's festival," says Nicholas Piper, director of the AFPP. "There is a wide variety of life being examined in these eight plays from the very real to the almost fantastical. I think these plays will provide great entertainment as well as spur great discussion amongst our audience."

Among this year's finalists are some AFPP alumni, including Lucinda McDermott whose play Feeding on Mulberry Leaves (AFPP winner 2005) went on to full production on Barter's Main Stage. Her new play, Rumpus Room, will open the festival on July 5th at 1pm in Barter's Stage 2.

The final two readings on July 12th are part of Barter's Shaping of America Series which are commissioned new plays dedicated to examining the theme of America: who are we, where did we come from, where are we headed?

Robert McKinney, theatre critic and newspaper journalist for the Bristol Herald Courier is now participating as a playwright with Freedom, based on a true story about Champ Ferguson, one of two men tried and convicted of war crimes during the Civil War.

The festival will close with Winter Wheat, a new musical by Barter's playwright in residence Catherine Bush and Barter alum Ben Mackel. Set in Niota, Tennessee, 1919, this play follows Febb Burn and her family as they, and the rest of the nation, wrestle with the Anthony Amendment granting women the right to vote.

Nicholas Piper says, "We want people from all across our region to come and be part of the process of developing new plays. It's fun and it's free!"

For more information about this year's AFPP readings visit BarterTheatre.com or call 276.628.3991.

Barter Theatre. With its unique beginnings during the Great Depression, Barter Theatre, one of this nation's oldest professional non-profit theatres, is located in beautiful historic Abingdon, Virginia. Barter Theatre is a theatre of firsts: one of this nation's first professional regional theatres, the first professional theatre to be designated a state theatre - The State Theatre of Virginia and more. Today, Barter offers a variety of musicals, classics, comedies, dramas and new southern and Appalachian plays performed February - December yearly on two stages: Barter Theatre and Barter Stage II. Barter Theatre continues to be one of the nation's most vibrant and exciting professional theatre experiences.