The Pocahontas County Opera House hosts a double-feature weekend with the stage production of Potluck on Friday, April 10, and Beatles/Grateful Dead tribute band Long Strange Night on Saturday, April 11. Both performances start at 7:30 p.m. Potluck is a feast of stories, songs and poems that satisfy the soul, lift the heart and tickle the funny bone. Karen Vuranch, Julie Adams and Colleen Anderson have gathered their very best and very favorite pieces about cookery and community — and the connections between them — into an hour-long live performance that’s full to the brim with laughter and love. Karen Vuranch, who has been called West Virginia’s First Lady of Storytelling, tours throughout the U.S. and internationally. She is well-known for her Appalachian and multi-cultural stories, as well as for her one-women plays, “Coal Camp Memories” and “Homefront.” Her living history performances include author Pearl S. Buck, labor organizer Mother Jones, and humanitarian Clara Barton. Julie Adams is a singer/ songwriter and, since 1983, featured vocalist for the internationally syndicated public radio show Mountain Stage, which is heard across the U.S. and on Voice of America. She has performed with Kathy Mattea, Sarah McLachlan, Bruce Cockburn, Shawn Colvin, and many others. She has released five CDs, most recently “Christmas Angel” and “Julie Adams and the Mountain Stage Band: Live, Volumes I and II.” Colleen Anderson is a writer, designer and songwriter whose work has been published by Redbook and Arts and Letters, among others. Her songs have been featured on Mountain Stage and The Folk Sampler, and she has released two collections, “Fabulous Realities” and “Going Over Home.” With Julie Adams, she leads an annual songwriting workshop, Sources of Song, at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico. Colleen owns and operates Mother Wit Writing and Design, a creative studio in Charleston. On the heels of Friday night’s performance, Saturday’s concert with Long Strange Night will take music lovers through some of the most iconic music of the 1960s and 70s. Many Opera House fans recall the two previous standing-room-only performances of The Beatles tribute group Hard Day’s Night The Band. Hard Days Night bandmates Will Newman and Tommy Cox are now teaming up with several special guests for a return to the Opera House stage. Like the band’s repertoire, its name is a mash-up of The Beatles 1964 classic “Hard Day’s Night” and a line from The Grateful Dead’s 1970 hit “Truckin’” (“What a long, strange trip it’s been…”). Fittingly the evening will feature a family-friendly combination of Beatles favorites, followed by a rocking set of Grateful Dead jams, making for another memorable night from Newman, Cox and their fellow musicians. This special performance is sponsored by Network Integration Specialists, Inc., of Richmond, Virginia. Tickets for both events are $10. Youth 17 and under are admitted free of charge. Tickets are available in advance at pocahontasoperahouse.org and at the Fourth Avenue Gallery in Marlinton. The Pocahontas County Opera House is located at 818 Third Avenue in Marlinton. Performances at the Opera House are informal, family-friendly and open to all. The entrance and main seating are accessible to persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities are encouraged to attend; special accommodations can be arranged upon request by calling 304-799-6645. The Opera House Performance Series is presented with financial assistance through a grant from the West Virginia Division of Culture and History and the National Endowment for the Arts, with approval from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts. Support is also provided by Pocahontas County Drama, Fairs and Festivals, the Pocahontas County Convention and Visitors Bureau, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Pendleton Community Bank, the Law Office of Roger D. Forman, Brightside Acres, Glades Building Supply and Burns Motor Freight.
