Playhouse presents love story set on WWII home front

CBJ Admin
Wednesday, May 23, 2012

CROSSVILLE – The Cumberland County Playhouse continues its 2012 Adventure Theater season with Arlene Hutton’s “See Rock City.”

Set in rural Kentucky in the 1940s, this play follows married couple May and Raleigh during the final months of World War II. When victory overseas brings unexpected consequences at home, the young couple is forced to find common solutions to the challenges of a new post-war America. May, more interested in a career than in housework, became a school principal during the war but has to return to the classroom when the men who’d been fighting overseas return and resume the jobs they left behind. And Raleigh, discharged from the service early and denied a chance at combat because of his medical history, discovers that missing this defining event of his time is the greatest hindrance to his evolving career as a writer. At its heart, “See Rock City” is a funny, touching and universal portrayal of a young couple very much in love.

The “New York Times” praised playwright Arlene Hutton’s work, calling it “a portrait of a marriage...a look at the mid-20th century’s shifting cultural landscape. But Ms. Hutton never mistakes theater for social studies, and we are all the better for it.”

Cumberland County Playhouse alumnus Tom Anglund (“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Smoke on the Mountain,” “The Foreigner”) directs, and Greg and Lindy Pendzick (“Little Shop Of Horrors,” “Tinyard Hill”) star as Raleigh and May. Rounding out the cast are Playhouse luminaries Carol Irvin (“Driving Miss Daisy”) and Patty Payne (“The Moving of Lilla Barton”) as the mothers of the couple.

“See Rock City” opens in the Adventure Theater on Thursday, May 31, and runs in repertory with “Smoke on the Mountain” through Aug. 17. On the Mainstage, Broadway and Hollywood star Bob Gunton appears in the autobiographical musical “Walking on Water” through June 16, and the musical vaudeville/medicine show “Cowboys” plays through July 20.

Tickets and information are also available for selected concerts at Crossville’s Palace Theater and other events at www.ccplayhouse.com or by calling (931) 484-5000. All CCP productions are made possible through sponsor support, with additional support provided by the Tennessee Arts Commission.