New Musical ‘Winfield’ to Debut September 9-11; Auditions
for ‘Winfield’ and ‘SpongeBob’ Occur May 3-9
Winfield, Kan., April 25, 2022 — Thanks to the collaborative efforts of
Southwestern College’s theatre department, Winfield’s Art and Humanities
Council (WAHC), and festival attendee and long-time musical writer Ken Gale,
people will soon have a whole new way to experience the unique music festival
that happens here every third weekend in September. As part of a community wide
celebration of the 50th Walnut Valley Festival, Southwestern will, for the
first time, produce Gale’s “Winfield, A Bluegrass Musical.”
Set at the campgrounds during the 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 Performing Arts Center (RPAC) on the evenings
of Sept. 9 and 10, with a matinee on Sunday, Sept. 11. The Sunday matinee will
be free of charge to any festival attendee (wearing a wristband), and buses
will be on hand to transport people from the campground up to Southwestern
College’s campus for the show.
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 musical production (SpongeBob),
according to the following schedule:
• Tuesday,
May 3, 7-9 p.m., in Messenger Auditorium for both shows (SC students)
• Thurs, May
5, 6-8 p.m., in RPAC for “Winfield, A Bluegrass Musical” (community auditions)
• Friday, May
6, 6-8 p.m., in RPAC for all ages for “SpongeBob”
• Saturday,
May 7, 9 a.m. to noon, auditions for individuals of all ages for “SpongeBob”
and callbacks will be from 3-5 p.m., in RPAC for “SpongeBob”
• Mon, May 9,
7-9 p.m., callbacks for “Winfield, A Bluegrass Musical” in RPAC
Organizers hope to showcase parts of the musical around the community and
on grounds at the 50th Festival as well. Patrons 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.
Joshua Robinson, Southwestern College director of theatre, is looking
forward to this 50th anniversary collaboration.
“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,” Robinson says. “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 50th
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.”
Ken Gale has been writing for music theater in Kansas for over a quarter
century. He wrote the libretto and lyrics and co-wrote the music for the
dark “Frankenstein, The Musical,” which was performed at the Orpheum Theater in
Wichita in 1996. His Christmas musical “Bethlehem, Kansas” (music, lyrics,
libretto) was produced by Wichita’s Music Theater for Young People in 2005 and
2017. He teamed with playwright Joyce Markley to create the musical “Save
Me A Dance” (music, lyrics, original story), which was performed at Mary Jane
Teal Theater in 2012. “Cindy!” (music, lyrics, libretto) was produced by
Peabody High School in 2019. His musical “The President of Zenda”
(co-writer of music, lyrics, libretto) is still looking for a venue and
producer. Gale has served as music director for musicals at Music Theater
for Young People and Kapun-Mt. Carmel High School. He was the music director,
and later the executive producer, of the Wichita Bar Association’s Bar Show for
over 20 years. For his day job Ken works for the United States District
Court.
Since 1972, the Walnut Valley Festival traditionally is held the third
weekend of September in Winfield, and draws a crowd of 10,000-15,000 people to
celebrate a blend of all kinds of acoustic music, including bluegrass, folk,
Americana, a little bit of cowboy, some Celtic, blues, jazz and swing, and
more.
