News

Southwestern College to Produce Winfield, A Bluegrass Musical

in Advance of 50^th Walnut Valley Festival 

Winfield, KS

Thanks to the collaborative efforts of Southwestern College’s Theatre Department, Winfield’s Art and Humanities Council (WAHC), and long-time festival attendee and songwriter Ken Gale, people will soon have a whole new way to experience the unique music festival that happens here every 3^rd weekend in September. As part of a community wide celebration of the 50^th Walnut Valley Festival, Southwestern College will, for the first time, produce Gale’s Winfield, A Bluegrass Musical.

Set at the campgrounds during festival, the musical tells the story of a first-time attendee who finds love, family, and himself among the strummers and pickers who inhabit the festival campgrounds. Armed with a guitar, his best friend, and a new song, Dusty encounters the ethereal Celeste and falls hard. Along the way he meets Peg and the pickers of Pirate Camp, Cookie and the Mutineer camp strummers, and the mystical musical minions who inhabit the woods by the Walnut River.

The music and script were written by Ken Gale, who has attended Winfield, taken part in the NewSong Showcase, and writes musicals in his spare time. The show is designed to be performed with musicians playing traditional bluegrass instruments on stage and taking part in the musical, rather than as an offstage accompaniment.

Southwestern College’s Theatre Arts Department will organize the production, with funding and support from Walnut Valley Festival and a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant administered by WAHC. Plans call for the show to take place in Richardson Auditorium on the evenings of September 9-10, with a matinee on Sunday, September 11. That Sunday matinee will be free of charge to any festival attendee (wearing a wristband), and buses will be on hand to transport folks from the campground up to Southwestern College’s campus for the show.

Organizers hope to showcase parts of the musical around the community and on grounds at the 50^th Festival as well. So, locals can expect see a few songs or scenes at concerts and other events over the summer and into the fall, and there will again be a set at festival devoted to the songs of Winfield. The production will draw on the talents of Southwestern students and faculty as well as community members, and auditions will take place before the end of the current semester.

Professional musicians playing the onstage roles can expect to be compensated, thanks to support from the NEA grant administered by WAHC. Auditions will be held in conjunction with another Southwestern production (SpongeBob), according to the following schedule:

=         Tuesday, May 3, 7-9 p.m. Southwestern College Auditions 

=         Thurs, May 5, 7-9 p.m. Community Adult auditions 

=         Mon, May 9, 7-9 p.m. Callbacks 

Southwestern College Director of Theatre Dr. Joshua Robinson: “We are excited to be working on a project connected to Walnut Valley Festival, an event that really has become an intrinsic part of our identity as a community. It is no accident that most people, when they plan on attending the festival, talk about ‘going to Winfield.’ The musical itself is one that I think that most anyone will enjoy, whether they have attended the festival or not. But to be doing this on the eve of the 50^th festival, I feel like this is a chance for our college and the community to join in really celebrating an important milestone for all of us.”