Roadside's Ron Short, who has been with the ensemble for 18 years, is a playwright, composer, musician, and performer. He grew up in Dickenson County, Virginia, singing a cappella in the Old Regular Baptist Church that his great grandfather, John Calvin Swindall, founded. As a youngster Ron learned to play fiddle, banjo, and guitar from his family. He will be writing the musical with his cousins, the Mullins.
Music is an essential part of Roadside's theater. Mountain music, founded on Celtic and Gaelic ballads and fiddle tunes and influenced by Native American, African, and European traditions, was once a part of every gathering in the mountains, secular and sacred.
How did the Mullins family get involved?
The Mullins Family Singers is composed of three generations of singer/musicians from Dickenson County. They have provided a strong musical voice in the mountains for well over 100 years by continuing a tradition of family harmony singing begun by Great, Great Grandpa Enoch Mullins, who taught shape note singing in the 1800s.
The family (Billy Gene, his wife Myrtle Ann, sister AnnaBell, daughter Anita, and son Scotty) regularly sings at revivals, funerals, and memorial meetings, supporting and uplifting their community in times of grief and in times of celebration. For the past several years, they have been a part of Appalshop's Annual Seedtime on the Cumberland Festival and Roadside's annual Appalachian Christmas play.
The Mullins family's primary purpose for singing is religious, but they also are concerned about the diminishing interest in Appalachian family harmony singing. Not wanting to lose such a powerful tradition, they have been looking for secular opportunities to present their music and its message.
At the same time, Scotty Mullins, who is also a talented songwriter, is excited about composing music with his cousin Ron. The creation of this play offers Ron and Scotty, and the rest of the Mullins and Roadside, a chance to work together on a performance that will bring mountain family harmony singing to a local, regional, and national audience.
How is this play different from other Roadside plays?
To date, Roadside's plays have been storytelling theater with music. This play will be storytelling music with theater.
What will Roadside do with the production once mounted?
The musical theater production will become part of Roadside Theater's touring repertoire and will be performed locally, regionally, and nationally.
The play will be especially useful for those communities that wish to explore their own local musical traditions in the context of a Roadside residency.
