My Very Own Cider House Rules

I am currently in Berkley Springs, WV, designing a production of Steel Magnolias for the Ice House Theatre. It is, as you would expect, a small community theatre up in the mountains of West Virginia. The building that houses the theatre, as well as an art galery and classroom space, used to be a storage facility for apples; thus, the Ice House.

Berkley Springs is an interesting town. Like many small towns a certain distance from a large metropolitan area, it is a mixture of "locals", who were born and raised here, and the "move-ins" who have bought property and moved here. Some of the "move-ins" have opened businesses in town, and there are a number of small coffee houses/ restaurants with vegetarian friendly food, art galleries, and restaurants with entrees running above twenty dollars. To contrast this, there is a hardware store that still sells seed stock loose, and gives you your washers in a small paper envelope (75 cents for 5). And a movie theatre that lists a show time, not times; Thursday thru Sunday at 8:00PM. The town is quaint and earthy-crunchy all at the same time.

There is of course the usual grumbling from the locals about the "city folk trying to come here and run things", and complaints from the move ins about the backwardness of the locals. Despite the fact that her father has owned property here since the 70's, A and her husband, B, are still considered "move ins".

There is also the typical small town gossip. It seems every conversation begins with, "have you heard." Everyone and everything here has a story, and I am beginning to feel left out since i don't have some dark sordid past. I am thinking about making one up. If you have suggestions for this, please let me know.

The people connected with the theatre are very gracious, and everyone here has bent over backwards to make me feel welcome. This evening I attended a party for the cast and crew held at one of the actor's homes. She lives outside of Berkley (no one here refers to it as Berkley Springs, it's just Berkley) in a beautiful cabin by the river. We had a potluck dinner, and even sat around a bonfire making smores.

I am having fun here, although I am still waiting for Charlize Theron to show up and get naked with me.