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The Kentucky Cycle - The Families.

Ties that Bind: The Biggs, Rowen, and Talbert Families explores the ancestry and relationship of the fictional Biggs, Rowen, and Talbert families, and the real events that shaped lives of the people of Appalachia – and our nation.

The study of family histories provides a window into the past that provides understanding of the present-day, and how individuals, nations, and the global community might develop in the future. Genealogy informs how societies came to be and examines cultural, political, social, and economic influences across time and space. It also builds the personal understanding of how we as individuals are the sum of a vast range of past experiences and actors ourselves in the process of historical change. The study of our genetic past helps lead to greater personal insight and comprehension of each person’s place in the grand sweep of the human story.

Presented in partnership with with the Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island.



Ties that Bind: Whidbey Island

Share your family tree with us!

Download a family tree cahrt, complete, and send (or deliver on your performance date), and we'll post your family's story, too.

FAMILY TREE

"One of the wonderful things about working on a big canvas like this is that you can watch that legacy being created and transformed and passed on, and watch characters wrestle with forces that are real to them but which they can’t understand, much less articulate, but which we as the audience can—having witnessed their generation and their bestowal. I think it’s both tremendously provoking and very satisfying to begin to think about oneself, not just as flotsam and jetsam tossed by the historical tide, but as part of a continuum, as someone who has had certain things handed down to them, and will in turn hand down certain things. It’s one of the things that’s different about this play. Family drama is a staple of American dramaturgy—it’s one of the subjects that we do best. But we rarely do it on a big canvas. We rarely get to look at this kind of wide scope. I think there’s something appealing about that, something very satisfying." -- Robert Schenkkan



special thanks
Ron Atlee; Gay Bitts; Patrick Bitts; Todd Bitts; The Everett Daily Herald; FightDesigner.com; Fine Balance Imaging Studios; Genealogical Society of South Whidbey Island and Maureen MacDonald; David Gignac; Caitlin Goldbaum; The Inn at Langley, Paul and Pam Schell; Langley United Methodist Church; Robert Schekkan; Sound Publishing; Claudia Walker; Whidbey Daily; Whidbey Institute; Denis Zimmerman