WINONA – The Montgomery County Arts Council is proud to announce that its spring performance of Hill Fire opens today, Friday, April 16. Hill Fire is a folk-life play based on the real stories of the people who were born and raised in the South. The Hill Fire scripts are written locally and preserve the rich southern history and heritage of the community.
Hill Fire is produced semi-annually by the Montgomery County Arts Council (MCAC), and originated in 2003 when Paula McCaulla, founder of the MCAC, persuaded the Swamp Gravy Institute to come to Winona.
Swamp Gravy, a theater production group founded in 1991, in Colquitt, Ga., collected stories from local residents, hired a playwright and produced plays based on those stories. Those productions greatly increased the tax revenues for Colquitt, and McCaulla hoped it would do the same for Montgomery County.
“I thought that this would be perfect for Montgomery County because theirs is a community similar to ours economically,” McCaulla said. “They are mostly peanut farmers and cotton farmers and they have no industry in their county. The people there are racially divided, poor and going to other communities for jobs.”
Since 2003, Hill Fire has produced several plays since their first production of Standing Like Angels, including, Reunion, Last Train To Glory, Bless This House and In His Hands.
Elizabeth Eldridge, Chief Operations Officer with the MCAC, said this season’s play is called Rock of Ages. The title comes from the main storyline which centers around Rebecca who lived to be 107 years old. Rebecca was born in 1896 in the small community of Eskridge, near Duck Hill.
“On the day that she was born, her brother, Cooper, chiseled his name and the year on top of a huge rock that was located on their family’s property,” said Eldridge, who’s also the play’s assistant director. “The legend of the inscription was passed down through the generations and in 1989 the infamous boulder was rediscovered by a distant relative of Rebecca’s. And the rest, as they say, is history. And what a history it is.”
Eldridge said another Hill Fire story revolves around a one-armed man who accidentally falls into an abandoned well. A community is brought together as they rush to his rescue. But the danger of the situation causes many of the would-be rescuers to hesitate, with the exception of one courageous minister who risks his own life to save another.
“Every life is an amazing journey,” Eldridge said, quoting from the play. “Sometimes you have to dig deep to see the real story of someone’s life. You have to search for the heart of it. You have to look at it through God’s eyes. But every life…every single life… is a masterpiece being written by the Master author.”
The performance of Rock of Ages will be held at the Hill Fire Barn at 709 Alberta Drive in Winona. Tickets are $15 for adults and $8 for students. For reservations and group rates call 662-310-0199.
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