By David Rogers. October 26, 2011. BLOWING ROCK -- It's all about promotinig The Arts in the community and preserving professional theatre in Blowing Rock, Ensemble Stage Artistic Director Gary Smith told The Rotary Club of Blowing Rock on Monday at Chetola Mountain Resort in Blowing Rock. Photos by David Rogers

Frequently entertainng, always informative, the enthusiastic Smith recounted for the approximately 50 Rotarians and guests a breakthrough summer 2011 season in which all four Ensemble productions ("Catfish Moon", "Dead Certain", "Pageant Play" and "Going to See the Elephants") garnered enthusiastic, if not rave reviews. "In the two years that we have been in operation," Smith reported, "We have employed 115 actors in our productions and over 90% of them live within 15 miles of Blowing Rock and all but a couple are from across North Carolina.  There are a lot of talented people in this state, but especially in the High Country."

Smith, along with Managing Director Lisa Lamont, has a special commitment to serving the community, a message underlined in the many volunteer projects that Ensemble Stage is involved in, from Clean-Up Day to helping organize the events like this Saturday's "Ghoul School" (4:00 pm at Blowing Rock School), in benefit of the Blowing Rock School PTO.

"Community service is a concept we try to emphasize to the children participating in our summer theatre camps," shared Smith. "Young people are amazing and their creativity is exciting.  In our 2010 theatre camp, our group of six students, 9-13 years old, actually wrote a play about community service and volunteerism.  Not in a million years would I have imagined that students of that age would set their play in ancient Greece, but they did.  It is a 25-minute production that was so good I submitted it to a couple of publishers -- and one of them loved is so much that Blowing Rock can now boast of being the first community to have a published play by a group of young students in their first theatre camp!"

Looking ahead to Ensemble Stage's calendar production calendar, Smith noted, "We have the radio stage play 'Dracula' coming up on Oct. 30. Many of you will remember the Orson Welles script we adapted for Blowing Rock the past two years, 'War of the Worlds', in which your own J.B. Lawrence performed two years ago, and David Rogers performed both years.  With the inclusion of a 24-piece Honors Orchestra from Watauga High School last year, we pretty much ran out of places we could take that production.  So we are doing an adaptation of 'Dracula', which integrates elements of the original Bram Stoker story, with Orson Welles' 1938 production and some of my own contributions in adapting the story to the High Country and adding some elements that I think the Orson Welles script was missing.

"'War of the Worlds' was campy and fun," Smith continued, "but the 'Dracula' story is actually a meatier drama. In localizing it, instead of Dracula going from Transylvania to London, he finds his way to Wilmington, North Carolina, in the hold of a cargo ship, and eventually ends up occupying Mayview Manor in Blowing Rock.  It is a lot of fun, with some interesting characters, and I encourage you to come see it."

In addition to Ensemble's Halloween-themed production in "Dracula", the theatre company will once again produce a community-focused Christmas variety show, "Blowing Rock Christmas 3". "We just completed auditions," Smith said, "and I have to tell you that the talent is wonderful. Again, this will be in the style of the old Perry Como and Andy Williams variety hour holiday specials on TV, with musical performances, readings for the kids, beautiful dancing, and a couple of zany skits."

Smith also announced Ensemble Stage's first-ever capital campaign. "Our goal is to raise $50,000, which will last us two years.  You don't have to spend loads of money to have great theatre in the High Country.  We are very frugal about how we invest our resources, and are pretty resourceful in getting stuff donated. Thanks to wonderful support from many different members of the Blowing Rock community, we are able to create a high quality theatre product well within budget.  For example, for the summer's final production, 'Going to See the Elephants', which was set in the late 1800s on the plains of Kansas, I created a mud hut set from materials that were mostly donated, and Blowing Rock's Glenn Bolick donated some historical props that were actually from the 1880s. Mr. Bolick's gifts were a blessing in helping us create, desgin and build an authentic-looking backdrop for our story. For 'Catfish Moon', I found some old wormy wood piled by a farmer's shed, and he was happy to give it to me. That's the kind of community support we are gettting, to help us stay within budget and produce great theatre."

In other Rotary business, President Vernon Dunn and Vice President Jim Clabough reminded Rotarians about the Holiday Banquet coming up on Monday, December 12th, at Chetola Mountain Resort, while Nick Friedman of Boone Sunrise Rotary was available to take orders for citrus boxes as part of his club's annual fundraising campaign.

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