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The Family Series
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In presenting superior
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most memorable
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Play Party: Songs and Stories of Appalachia.

Written and Performed by Jill Johnson
with Steve Showell and
Bruce Rowland and the Shape Note Singers

Running time: 90 minutes with one intermission
Recommended for ages 5 and above.

Come share a rollicking good time with storyteller, Jill Johnson, and her special guests Steve Showell and Bruce Rowland and the Shape Note Singers. Together, they will evoke an older, simpler time and invite the audience to participate in some "old-timey" fun. Jill will spin yarns, Steve will play his fiddle and banjo, and they will bring back the songs and stories of America's first frontier. Bring the whole family and get ready to listen, sing, stomp, clap, and play; it's a Play Party!

What’s a Play Party?
A play party is a social event in which people gather to sing and dance. Play parties began in the 1830s in the United States. They were a route around the strict religious practices banning dancing and the playing of musical instruments. Folk songs, many of English origin, were used as means to give the attendants choreographed movements for each phrase. No instruments were played at the events, as the religious movements of the area banned them. Singing and clapping were used to convey each song. Because dancing was banned, the movements took on the quality of children’s games.

Do you (or did you) sing “Skip to My Lou,” “B.I.N.G.O.,” “Pop Goes the Weasel,” or “Old Dan Tucker”? These songs were born out of the play party!



The Program

Welcome
Jill Johnson

Fiddle Medley
Steve Showell (fiddle), Judy Magidson (guitar)

“Jack and the Two Bullet Hunt” - A Jack Tale
Jill Johnson and Steve Showell

Banjo/Mandolin Medley
Steve Showell (banjo, mandolin), Judy Magidson (guitar)

“Whitebear Whittington”- An Appalachian Fairy Tale
Jill Johnson and Steve Showell

“The L and N Don’t Stop Here Anymore”
Steve Showell

“ Jordan is a Hard Road To Travel”
Jill Johnson, Steve Showell, and Audience

INTERMISSION

Shape Note Singing
Bruce Rowland and The Shape Note Singers

“Ray”
Jill Johnson

The Songs and Stories.





The Artists

Jill Johnson began her storytelling career in Jonesborough , Tennessee , the home of the annual National Storytelling Festival. "For five years," says Jill, "I sat - and listened to - and learned from - tellers from all over the world. Talk about an opportunity...!" Since then, Jill has performed and given workshops all over Puget Sound and in Oregon, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Connecticut, and overseas. Little, But OH My!, her story of Berte Olson, ferry boat captain, premiered at WICA in 2003 and she has appeared in several WICA productions: Barnstorming, Little Women, This Child, Rabbit Hole, and A Child's Christmas in Wales. "But," says Jill, "it is a special joy to be able to share some of what I experienced in Tennessee ."

Steve Showell has been playing his fiddle and mandolin at music festivals, farmers markets, street fairs and local stages for the past 30 years. Steve picked up his first fiddle in 1976 and found his first tune, Turkey in the Straw, it is still one of his favorites. Steve has played with The Dead Goat Dirt Band, The Swinging Nettles, The Island Contra Band and spent time playing with The Testing Testing House band. Recently Steve performed as a guest on Tim Noah’s “Kaddywompas Radio Show”.  With a repertoire of hundreds of fiddle tunes Steve Showell is always ready to have a great time playing for any occasion.

Judy Magidson has been playing guitar since being inspired by the Up With People movement back in Junior High School. An accomplished musician, she plays anything from folk to classical to fiddle tunes and bluegrass to sacred music and klezmer. She has also played guitar for many theatrical productions across the country including Man of La Mancha, Godspell, and Jesus Christ Superstar. The banjo started calling to her heart while in college, with her favorite styles being Clawhammer and Frailing (what creates that "mountain" Appalachian sound). Moving to Whidbey Island from Denver , CO  in 2003, she hooked up with Steve Showell playing guitar, banjo and bass for various bands including Band DuJour, Swing Nettles, The Island Contra Band, and the Testing Testing House band. Her favorite pass-time activities these days include "doing serious foot-stompin" (pickin' & grinin') for any occasion and co-hosting the weekly Langley (WA) Acoustic Music Jam.

Bruce Rowland and the Shape Note Singers
Bruce Rowland has sung in a number of choirs but his heart lies in a musical tradition of singing from shape note hymnals called "Sacred Harp", an acapella community singing tradition dating back to the early 1800s and kept alive mainly in the rural south. He has sung with the Seattle and Portland Sacred Harp singers for 20 years but was introduced to the sound by his grandparents in Haleyville, Alabama (hardwired before he could talk), where the Denson "Sacred Harp" was published for many years.

The Crew

Stage Manager
Dylan Gibson

Light Board Operator
Walker Landel



special thanks

“Ray and Rosa Hicks: The Last of the Old Time Storytellers”, produced by Charles and Jane Hadley, Queens College , Charlotte , NC , 2000. Used with permission; Isbell, Rob, “The Last Chivaree”, University of North Carolina Press, 1996; Paton, Sandy, “Ray Hicks”, Folk Legacy Records, Inc. 1964; Connie Regan-Blake and Jay O’Callahan: storytellers