Cherry Orchard Theatre
CHERRY ORCHARD THEATRE 2025 – CELEBRATING 26 YEARS, 1999-2025.
Outdoor theatre is a tradition in our part of the world. Over the years North Carolina has boasted more outdoor theatre productions than any state in the country, ranging from famous ones like “The Lost Colony” and “Unto These Hills” to lesser known productions that are often of good quality.
Though we are in Virginia, we are only eight miles distant from this “mother” state of outdoor theatre. Inspired by the tradition in North Carolina — and by the 55-mile view of mountains and valleys from our cherry orchard outdoor ampitheatre site — since 1999 we have been offering a wide variety of theater experiences at The Cherry Orchard Theatre. Here we have performed dozens of plays, had numerous concerts and storytelling gatherings, and played host to some of the leading theatrical and musical talent in our region. Over the years many thousands of people have come, bearing lawn chairs and perhaps a picnic supper and a bottle of wine — no restrictions there! — to watch performances and to enjoy the coolness of the Blue Ridge Mountain evening and the spectacular view behind the stage.
Showtime is at 7 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. Rain or shine, the show must go on — if it’s raining we move to our packhouse, a friendly confine for theatre that smells like the peaches we are selling there during theater season! Tickets are $10 and purchased at the door — reservations are accepted but not required, there is plenty of elbow room. Bring lawn chairs, food, and something to drink — then sit back on the cool grass, and enjoy the show!
2025 marks our 27th season at Cherry Orchard Theatre, and we are celebrating with five weekends at our spectacularly beautiful Cherry Orchard Theatre stage. All shows start at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10. No reservations required. For more info, call 276-755-3593 or 276-755-2224. We look forward to seeing you!
Summer 2025 Schedule
AUGUST 1, 2, 3 — AN EVENING OF POETRY, STORYTELLING & MUSIC
Over many years at Cherry Orchard Theatre, we’ve often combined local storytelling and poetry with live music, a winning combination. This year, once again, we offer poetry by local poets along with stories by Terri Ingalls, Millie Hiatt, Misty Hagwood and more. We’ve had many musicians perform here over the years, and this year we anticipate performances by Stu Shenk, Ed Dalton and others. Always a marvelous evening.
If you are in the audience and have a poem or story you would like to share, we welcome you to the theater stage as well!
AUGUST 8, 9 — GIRL OF THE HOLLER: A ONE-WOMAN SHOW
You ever met Christina Holland, who lives in Meadows of Dan, Virginia? If so, have you ever seen her perform on stage? Well — Christina Holland is one of our region’s treasures, a longtime performer, teacher, writer who brings wisdom and delight to anyone in her sphere. “Girl of the Holler” is Christina’s latest creation, a memoir play about a woman growing up in a small town of Appalachia, as she deals with her own mental health issues and relationship with her moonshiner father. Evocative, inspiring, and not pulling punches, “Girl of the Holler” is for mature audiences only.
Come join us and experience what live, intimate theater is all about!
AUGUST 10 — BOYS BECOME MEN: A FOOTBALL LEGACY
For one night we’re bringing them back — the guys who played on the 1967, 1968 and 1969 Mount Airy High School football teams, including some of the players who won the 3-A N.C. State Championship in 1968. They’re still kicking, these guys — not a football, but still kicking as in still going strong: Bill Wall, record-setting quarterback of that championship team: Gary Neal, offensive lineman and a co-captain of that ’68 team; Steve Loftis, who also played on the ’69 team that went 12-0 before losing the state championship game; Bobby Bradley, who went on to excel at Duke; Coley Burton, an anchor of the offensive line; Phil Sutphin, the toughest guy in Surry County; and many more. For this one night they and their families will take the stage along with Frank Levering, who played alongside them, to share their stories and reflect on how boys can become men under the tutelage of great coaches like Jerry Hollingsworth, Dave Diamont and NFL Hall of Famer Alex Gibbs. Come share this trip back to the late 60s and the football experience that shapes lives for a lifetime.
AUGUST 15, 16, 17 — LOST AND FOUND IN PULASKI
Again this year we are honored to host David Beach, theater artist and drama professor who previously at Cherry Orchard has done Shakespeare, the play “Reds,” and his own play, “Mothers & Terrorists.” It’s a joy to see David again, this time with his new memoir play, “Lost and Found in Pulaski,” a wise and charming tale of transformation in rural Virginia. But let’s let David tell you about it. He writes: “He lost the city. What he found wasn’t what he lost. After leaving the city behind, Russell finds himself in rural Pulaski, Virginia, trying to put down roots with his straight best friend, two eccentric Mormon neighbors, and a porch view offering strange comfort. Through memory, wit, and quiet revelation, ‘Lost and Found in Pulaski” explores queer belonging in unexpected places.” David’s joyous new play is directed by Patrick Butler. Join us!
AUGUST 21, 22, 23– PRECIPICE
Along with Terri Ingalls and others, Patrick Butler’s name has become tantamount with excellence and fearless exploration in local theater. In shows like “Reds,” “Tales of the Waterless Sea,” “All We Know of Heaven” and more, as an actor Patrick has given us depth, nerve, range — and wonder — as an actor. Now comes Patrick the playwright, another dive off the high board that we’ve come to expect from this Grayson County, Virginia newlywed (and what a dive that is, for a not so young guy!). In Patrick’s debut play, “Precipice,” also premiering here at Cherry Orchard, love, memory, and grief have come to the edge of — everything. As the story of Melvin and his longtime marriage unfolds, told with wry humor, tenderness, and vulnerability, we see a man navigating the vast territory of love, aging, loss, and what it means to stand on the brink of the unknown — still reaching for the sun. Written and performed by Patrick Butler, and directed by David Beach, this play belongs first on the Cherry Orchard stage, where new playwrights have seen the light of day now for 26 years!
AUGUST 29, 30, 31 – THE STICKS
In this new dark comedy by Frank Levering, a 77-year-old actress, having spent her career in the theatrical “sticks,” finds herself in Garden City, Kansas playing, at last, the great role she has always wanted to play — that of Lyubov Ranevskaya in Chekhov’s masterpiece, “The Cherry Orchard.” It’s opening night — an hour before curtain rise. As she dons her costume and puts on make-up in her dressing room, a man appears in her dressing room mirror, someone she has never seen before. Who is he? And what is he doing here, on this the most thrilling, the most exalted evening of her life? Six miles to the west of the community college theater where “The Cherry Orchard” is to be performed, a family was murdered in 1959, chronicled in Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood.” Does a thread run from those horrific murders through this handsome stranger and on to her? Or is he only who he says he is — an old friend of her own late friend, the gay drama teacher at the college who got her this gig by somehow, before he died, bringing Chekhov to The Sticks?
We’re not telling. And unless you see Terri Ingalls, playing the actress, and Patrick Butler as the tall stranger in the mirror, you’re not gonna know. Such knowledge comes at the cost of a paltry ten dollars. Join us!
Admission is only ten dollars. Bring a lawn chair and anything you would like to eat or drink.
For more information –starting in July-, and any questions you may have, please call 276-755-3593. On Saturdays and Sundays, you can call the packhouse number — 276-755-3593 — and speak with Frank Levering.You can also often speak with Frank at 276-755-4722 (cell phone reception permitting), or email him at franklevering1@gmail.com.
We’ll see you on the mountain!
— Frank Levering
FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE SHOWS, STARTING IN JULY, CALL 276-755-3593.