Can you just imagine what a sweet little old church lady, in 1938, might think about a traveling family band who brought guitars and mandolins right into the sanctuary and proceeded to sing worldly up-tempo tunes?
Of course you can! Think back a few years to when your church organized or invited in a Praise Band with their songs that sounded for all the world like Rock and Roll!
Well, this is the premise of Smoke on the Mountain, a delightful musical that opened at Center on the Square in Searcy this weekend.
Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, somewhere in Georgia, is hosting its first ever Saturday Night Sing and the Sanders Family Singers have come to share their Southern Gospel music and their testimonies.
Daughter June (played by Sofia Fuller) is not a singer, but she comes along with the rest of the family. She doesn’t sing, she signs. And her signing is nowhere near American Sign Language, believe me.
Through it all, two little church ladies, Miss Myrtle and Miss Maude, view the proceedings with surprise, shock, and disdain. Playing the church ladies is a wonderful opportunity for an aged actor and her not-so-aged friend to perform without having to learn lines!
Each evening features a different pair of church ladies. My friend, Rhonda Roberts and I are pleased to sit on that front pew during one of the performances. We are pictured above, demonstrating our disapproval.
Remaining dates for Smoke on the Mountain are the next two weekends: August 21, 22, 23 and August 28,29, 30. August 23 and 30 are matinees. Call the theater 501-368-0111 for further information or visit the website: www,centeronthesquare.org.
Which night are these two ladies to be on the front pew?
What Pat asked. You and Rhonda certainly have the disapproving expressions down. The set of your mouth speaks volumes without speaking a word. I know it will be fun show for audience and performers.
Rhonda and I will be onstage Saturday, August 22.
I wanted to be there, but couldn’t make it on the 22nd. Sounds like a lot of fun. I’m ready for our church to go back to a choir. Enough praise team although they are pretty wonderful! lol