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news release
For more information, contact: Houck Medford , Executive Director hmedford@brpfoundation.org Moses Cone: the Record Breaker Blue Ridge Parkway-based Musical Makes History Saturday night's performance of the musical drama Moses Cone: The Denim King marked the end of the third most successful show in the history of the Blowing Rock Stage Company (www.blowingrockstage.com), and the most successful show in both ticket sales and attendance since the company moved to the new Mariam and Robert Hayes Performing Arts Center (www.hayescenter.org) in August 2006. More than 3,200 patrons saw the production during its world premier season, which ran from May 30 through June 16. Based on the book Mansion in the Mountains by Philip Noblitt, retired National Park Service information officer for the Blue Ridge Parkway, the script was written by Dr. Janet Barton Speer of Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk; the music and lyrics were composed by Jonathan Thomas Oaks. Moses Cone: The Denim King was directed by Kenneth Kay, producing artistic director for the Blowing Rock Stage Company. The Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation (www.brpfoundation.org) commissioned the original play to tell the story of Moses Cone, a denim magnate in North Carolina who established Flat Top Manor in Blowing Rock as a retreat, encompassing vast fields, orchards and forests for wandering, a bass lake and a trout lake, stables and miles of carriage trails. The Cone story, entwined in the history of Blowing Rock and North Carolina’s Piedmont, provides a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the shared history of the Piedmont and the High Country and to encourage stewardship of the Moses H. Cone Memorial Park, part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The 3,600 acre estate was given to the Blue Ridge Parkway in 1952 by Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro (trustees for Bertha Cone) to be maintained as a "pleasuring ground" for the public for perpetuity. Volunteers from the Blowing Rock Historical Society, the Art and History Museum and Appalachian State University collaborated with the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation to promote the play. Together the groups held a gala evening on June 2 to celebrate its premiere and the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum sponsored an exhibit in the Arts Center's lobby which displayed art, artifacts and photographs from the period. In addition to the support from volunteers and the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, Moses Cone Hospital, Mountain Television Network, and WNC Magazine sponsored Moses Cone: The Denim King, which was one of the most elaborate productions in the stage company's history. A cast of more than twenty actors and a full orchestra performed in period costumes and sets that were reminiscent of the turn of the century living at the Cone's beloved Flat Top Manor. The production’s success is a testament to the talent, professionalism and dedication represented by the company.
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Additional Information: For more information about the Hayes Performing Arts Center or the Blowing Rock Stage Company, visit www.hayescenter.org or contact Rick Suyao at (828) 295-9168.
For more information about Moses Cone: The Denim King, visit www.brpfoundation.org/denim_king.php or to learn more about other projects and programs happening on the Blue Ridge Parkway, visit www.brpfoundation.org/projects.php or contact the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation at (336) 721-0260.
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