Friday-Sunday April 28-30—RUTLAND—Vermont Actors’ Repertory Theatre, a nonprofit theater group located in Rutland, will present the world premiere of “Going Up the Country.” The play has been adapted from Yvonne Daley’s book of the same name. Performances of this play with music will be held this weekend on Friday, April 28 and Saturday, April 29 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, April 30 at 2 p.m.
Next weekend shows will be Friday, May 5 and Saturday, May 6 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, May 7 at 2 p.m.
Performances will be held at the West Rutland Town Hall Theater located at 35 Marble St. in West Rutland. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased with cash or check at the door or in advance at paramountvt.org.
Yvonne Daley was a Vermont journalist who died this past August, and who wrote about the hippie invasion of the 1960s and ‘70s into the lives of native Vermonters and how each group transformed the other. By 1972 thousands of hippies and folks who identified with counterculture values were living in Vermont.
The story unfolds over a decade, and is performed by six actors, three men and three women, portraying different characters. The play features some well-known figures such as Ben and Jerry and Bernie Sanders. The play and music were written by Eric Peterson, former artistic director of Old Castle Theatre Company in Bennington, and John Foley, one of the creators of the Broadway hit musical, “Pump Boys and Dinette.”
Kimberlee Moyer is the director for the production. When Moyer read the play, it stirred up many memories from her past. Moyer said, “I believe the audience will be members of the older generation as well as younger people who want to make a change in the world we know now.”
