Margaret Baker
In the Pocahontas County Drama Workshop’s upcoming production of Deera’s Country Funeral, audiences will be treated to outstanding performances by two rising stars of the theater world.
Fifteen-year-old Vivian Helmick is no stranger to the stage. She began acting at age six and by eight she modestly reveals that she “was in a large children’s musical production of Beauty and the Beast as a napkin. Haha.”
Since moving to Green Bank from Washington State she has taken advantage of the apprentice theater program at the Old Brick Playhouse in Elkins, securing parts in Mary Poppins and Once Upon a Mattress. At the Youth Drama Camp in Monterey Virginia, she performed in Alice in Wonderland and landed the role of Wendy in Peter Pan. The part of the wisecracking teen angel, Corva, in the Drama Workshop’s upcoming performance of Deera’s Country Funeral will be her first acting experience with adults. Vivian says “Corva has lots of anxiety. She cares a lot, almost too much. She loves Gauley and works hard to prove she is worthy of her role as guardian angel of Gauley County.”
Vivian’s friends are often surprised at her nonchalance about being in front of others, but she thinks becoming a different person is wonderful.
“It’s like I’m not even in my own body,” she said. “It’s the perfect escape.”
Jack Herold took a less conventional route to Deera’s Country Funeral. He was recommended by a relative of the playwright to director Margaret Baker who needed a young reader for a staged reading of the play in 2024. The purpose of the reading was to help writer Ned Dougherty in his writing process.
Baker was delighted by Jack’s excellent acting instincts, poise and composure beyond his years. She did not hesitate to suggest to director Eric Fritzius that he should consider Jack for the full production. Jack has worked on small school plays for the past seven years and looks forward to branching out. He is “really excited to be working with experienced actors and hopes to learn a lot from them.”
Jack, a 16-year-old from the Mill Gap, Virginia, area can relate to Cole, his teenage counterpart in the play. They are both dealing with the cultural and social limitations of a small town though Jack feels he is “exposed to bigger things, other opportunities,” while Cole tends to feel “stuck” in the play’s Gauley County. Jack does identify with Cole’s tendency to “create pressure on himself” though for Jack, in a less emotional way.
Jack feels that plays “teach us things about ourselves. They help us choose what we want to be and what we don’t want to be.” In Deera’s Country Funeral Jack sees a dichotomy between “the love you choose and the love you don’t choose. The play explores loss and those who can pick up and move on and those who just can’t.”
The Opera House in Marlinton will host three full productions Deera’s Country Funeral by the Pocahontas County Drama Workshop featuring Vivian Helmick and Jack Herold Friday and Saturday, September 12 and 13, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, September 14, at 3 p.m. These plays are presented with support from Dramas Fairs and Festivals and the Opera House Foundation.
