THE MARSHALL COUNTY COMMUNITY THEATER
JOINS NASHVILLE AND ATLANTA THEATRICAL GROUPS IN DEVELOPING NEW PLAY
No Kin to Elvis is a musical comedy based on a book by the same name. The story is set 1957 in the fictitious town of Marlburn, Georgia, a small community situated in the heart of a burgeoning carpet industry, still enjoying a postwar boom. Emmer Lee Prestley, a young woman transplanted from the mountains of North Carolina, must fight to save her humble home from the local down-home mafia after her husband Elzo loses a bet on the ’57 World Series to their book. Elzo goes missing in a boating accident after the Series, so Emmer is forced to join forces with her estranged bootlegging daddy Bus Prestley to stave off eviction from her home.
Lane Davies
No Kin To Elvis, published as a book in 2013, was adapted as a musical play last year and is being developed for full production. To-date, the actor/director Lane Davies has hosted a reading of the play at the legendary Barn Theater in Nashville with actors from the Tennessee Shakespeare Festival. Sandra Dorsey Studios in Atlanta also has held a reading. Jim Wann, playwright/actor of Broadway’s Pump Boys and Dinettes has been recruited to help with development while three Southern filmmakers are considering producing it as a movie.
For the Dixie Theater production, Lane Davies will join a cast of Marshall County Community Theater actors in presenting a reading, complete with musical score. The effect will be that of an old-time radio play.
Davies has appeared on stage, screen, and television for nearly forty years. His most famous role was Mason Capwell on the soap opera Santa Barbara. His other soap credits include Days of Our Lives, The Bold and the Beautiful, and General Hospital. Other television credits include Married… with Children, Major Dad, Scrubs, Seinfeld, Just Shoot Me!, and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. He also had recurring roles on 3rd Rock from the Sun, The Practice, Coach, Complete Savages, The Nanny, Dallas, The Golden Girls, Empty Nest and Ellen. Davies has done extensive stage work and is the founder of the Tennessee Shakespeare Festival.
No Kin to Elvis was written by Southern author Dr. John White, under his pen name Budd Harbis. Under the Budd Harbis brand, Dr. White has written and produced short films and a radio show for public broadcasting stations, most notably The Pointing Dog Social Club for Georgia Public Broadcasting. Under his real name, he writes historical articles and produces documentaries such as The Showman and the Hero, a film about the making of the 1941 movie, Sergeant York with Gary Cooper. This film has been broadcast on public television and special screenings throughout the South.
August 15th, the screening of the silent movie classic Stark Love, along with Dr. White’s documentary Lost Masterpiece: Karl Brown’s Stark Love (co-produced with Craig Tollis) will be the flagship event of Knoxville’s Great Smoky Mountain Film Festival.
John White, 1983
John White has strong ties to Lewisburg. He is the nephew of the late Edwin and Kathryn Scott and the grandson of Hattie Mitchell White who lived in Lewisburg for many years. More than thirty years ago, he owned the Lewisburg Paint Store.
The performance at the Dixie Theater is sponsored by Ernest and Nancy Henegar and Gene and Celia Roberson. It will take place Saturday evening, September 19th at 7 p.m. at the Dixie Theater. Tickets are $5.00. There is limited seating so call 931-703-6454 and ask for MCCT Executive Director Faris Phillips to reserve tickets.
The cover for the 2003 CD Fish On! was originally an ad for the Lewisburg Paint Store. It carried the caption, “Why is your house like this fish?”…If the paint on your house is scaly and unattractive LIKE THIS FISH maybe it’s the brand you’re using…
