The Company What would it be like for central Appalachia to have a professional theater company and a body of original Appalachian drama? That's what the founders of Roadside Theater asked themselves in 1975. Any place and community could ask itself the same question. Roadside also set out to answer whether theater that relied on the local and the specific, rendered faithfully and imaginatively, could affect people anywhere. The answer is yes. The company has toured in forty-three states, has been in residence a number of times off-Broadway, and has represented the United States at more than half a dozen international festivals, including in Sweden, London, and the Czech Republic. While Roadside continues to draw the inspiration for both the form and content of its plays from its homeland, the ensemble is also creating collaborative plays with other ensembles with connections to their particular place, people, and culture. Music has been prominent in these fruitful explorations.
					Nancy Smith in Roadside's South of the Mountain

		Appalshop Roadside Theater is one part of Appalshop, the nonprofit cultural arts organization that also includes the Appalshop Center, the American Festival Project, Appalshop Film and Video, Appalshop Marketing and Sales, the Appalachian Media Institute, WMMT-FM Community Radio.

		Residencies An important part of the theater's work is conducting multi-year residencies that help community groups and local artists embark on the same journey that Roadside began twenty-two years ago. These community-building residencies begin with public performances of plays selected from Roadside's repertoire, complemented by workshops that explore the theater's history, purpose, and artistic process. In the second phase of the residency, the community, with Roadside's help, begins to uncover its own stories and music through a specific story and music circle process. This second phase culminates with public performances by the community of its stories and music, often in conjunction with big potluck suppers or community cook-outs. In the third phase of the residency, a community's stories and music form the natural resource to craft plays that are produced by a community's artists for the public. The final phase of the residency formally acknowledges the local project leaders and artists, seeks to identify infrastructure and resources to establish a place for their work in their community, and introduces their work to other theaters and presenters in the national community-based arts movement.
					Kim Neal and Ron Short perform Cumberland Mountain Memories

		Getting Out the Audience Roadside's national audience is different than the typical American theater audience: 64 percent live in rural communities; 18 percent are people of color; 68 percent have annual incomes of less than $50,000-- and half of those folks earn less than $25,000 a year. Roadside Theater works with presenters and community partners to produce residencies and performances that reach this diverse audience. Without exception, Roadside provides presenters with telephone and in-person planning sessions, promotional materials uniquely designed to reach a new audience, and booklets explaining its residency process and activities.

		Funding Partners Roadside Theater thanks its 1998 funding partners: the Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ruth Mott Fund, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture/Forestry Services, the Kentucky Arts Council, the Albert A. List Foundation, the Appalshop Endowment, and Alternate ROOTS. Roadside is a founding member of the American Festival Project, Alternate ROOTS, and the Gobal Network for Cutural Rights.

		Contact Information: Roadside Theater 306 Madison Street, Whitesburg, KY 41858 Phone (606) 633-0108 FAX (606) 633-1009 E-mail roadside@appalshop.org Webletter http://www.appalshop.org/rst/   Performance Fee Subsidies Available to Presenters from: Western States Arts Foundation North Carolina Arts Council Mid-Atlantic Arts Consortium Southern Arts Federation Alternate ROOTS (in the midwest) The Heartland Fund

		Key Collaborators Westem & Southern Arts Associates For the past decade, Michael and Theresa Holden, co-directors of Western and Southern Arts Associates (WASAA), have collaborated with Roadside on all of our national touring residencies. Their role is much larger than that of booking agent; they are always co-producers with us of our national work -- and sometimes the sole producer. The Artist and Community Connection Roadside also works with The Artist and Community Connection (ACC), the nonprofit producing organization founded four years ago by Theresa Holden. Through a range of national projects with artists, presenters, and community organizations, ACC is continuing to bring definition to the role of producer as cultural activist and organizer.

		Roadside Theater Staff Dudley Cocke Director Donna Porterfield Managing Director Tamara Coffey Administrative and Producing Associate Kim Neal Performer Ron Short Playwright, Composer, Performer Ben Mays Technical Director Nancy Smith Performer