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Jonesborough Storytown: Life Lines
February 28, 2020 @ 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
One event on February 29, 2020 at 2:00 pm
One event on March 1, 2020 at 2:00 pm
One event on February 29, 2020 at 7:30 pm
One event on March 6, 2020 at 7:30 pm
One event on March 7, 2020 at 7:30 pm
One event on March 7, 2020 at 2:00 pm
One event on March 8, 2020 at 2:00 pm
The McKinney Center’s StoryTown program will bring to life a brand-new play this February and March as Life Lines is set to open its world premiere. Written by Jules Corriere, this play is based on more than a thousand pages of oral story transcripts collected from area residents. Real-life characters and moments in local history take the stage as this moving play explores a common question: How to keep a community (or a family, or a life) together, as outside forces and influences work to pull them apart.
An important storyline in the play revolves around the story of Old Butler, which was flooded in 1948 by the TVA in order to create Lake Watauga. A dozen members from the Old Butler Community were interviewed for these scenes, including Joyce Dean Garrison, Ella Mae Wiggins, Billy Milhorn, and Herman Tester. The Butler community, which began in the late 1700’s, was systematically dismantled over the course of one year, with houses being moved on trailers to new locations, including Johnson City, Elizabethton, Telford and beyond. Homes were saved, but the geographical community was not. However, residents decided to keep the community of heart together, and continue to hold annual reunions to this day. Butler descendants Kate Pierce and Beverly Harrison are actors in the production.
The play is filled with true-life characters who have overcome floods and fires, including new Jonesborough residents Angie and Ivan Millan, who located to Jonesborough after the devastating Hurricane Maria and the floods in Puerto Rico. Importantly, the scenes in the play illustrate how different facets of community and family come together to serve as “Life Lines” to each other during times of trouble.
A sign interpreter will be available for one performance on February 29th at 2:00 p.m. for the hearing impaired.
Tickets for Life Lines are $12 general admission, $10 senior/student. The play opens February 28 at 7:30 p.m. at the McKinney Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee. It will also be performed on February 29 at 2:00 and 7:30 p.m., March 1 at 2:00 p.m., March 6 at 7:30 p.m., March 7 at 2:00 and 7:30 p.m. and March 8 at 2:00 p.m. For tickets, call the Jonesborough Visitors Center at 423.753.1010 or purchase online at jonesborough.com/lifelines.
This play is sponsored in part by a grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission.
