okra. Issue 26, 2024 Preview

special issue

Music Makers

MASHING IT UP

A collage of musical styles finds sweet harmony in NOLA

GUITAR MAN

A return to rock roots after years of classics in VA

WHERE SOUL LIVES ON

Preserving musical history is a top priority in Macon, GA

TIME FOR CAMP

This NC camp for girls in the Blue Ridge Mountains is not your usual camp

There's More Than Meets

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is more than 14 communities stretched across 60 miles of sunny beaches. It's also a bona fide Southern culture destination, with a burgeoning dining scene featuring over 2,000 restaurants, live music playing all day and night, and some impressive history to its name.

Picnic at Cherry Grove Point provided by Beach Picnic Co.

The Beach – as millions of annual visitors like to call the Myrtle Beach area – has a long history as a place where people live and play, and it’s had an influence on Southern culture all along the way. These are just seven of the attractions, towns and restaurants that put The Beach on the map.

Brookgreen Gardens

Your Good Times for a Conway Good, Long Time

This 9,127-acre botanical garden became the first public sculpture garden in the nation in 1931. Along with the gardens, Brookgreen preserves and exhibits the history and native species of the Southeast with its Lowcountry Zoo and Lowcountry History and Wildlife Preserve.

Sea Captain's House

Built in 1930 as an oceanfront family cottage, Sea Captain’s House was transformed in 1954 to a nine-room inn then finally into a restaurant in 1962. The restaurant retains much of its original look and charm and serves refined seafood dishes with ocean views.

The Bowery

The Bowery opened on the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk in 1944 and has hosted country acts ever since. Though its original claim to fame was the rise of houseband Alabama, this bar (and selfproclaimed 8th Wonder of the World®) hosts live acts nearly every night of the week.

Little River

Little River, South Carolina, sits on the northern end of the Grand Strand and was one of the earliest settlements in the area. Today, with its location on the Intracoastal Waterway, it’s known as a fishing haven and home to the World Famous Blue Crab Festival every May and Shrimpfest in October.

Conway sits about 15 miles inland along the Waccamaw River and is one of the oldest towns in South Carolina. Historic charm is everywhere – the City Hall is even on the National Register of Historic Places – but with its great food scene, local shops and murals all about town, Conway isn’t stuck in the past.

Fat Harold's Beach Club

The state dance of South Carolina is very much alive at Fat Harold’s, also known as the “Home of the Shag.” The shag got its start on South Carolina beaches in the ’40s – and at this North Myrtle Beach dance hall, you can still learn the steps and dance the night away.

Peaches Corner

Peaches Corner has been the go-to lunch counter on the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk since Momma Peach opened up shop in 1937. It has been family-owned and -operated ever since, serving up Peaches Burgers, footlong chili dogs and BBQ plates to hungry Boardwalkers.

Want to learn more? Scan to reacquaint yourself with The Beach. VisitMyrtleBeach.com

The Bowery

Myrtle Beach Boardwalk

46: INFUSED WITH SOUL

Macon, GA has a history with music. It’s a place where soul lives on.

56: SHINYRIBS

Kevin Russell’s collage of musical styles comes alive with Austin, TX band Shinyribs.

STORIES

64: IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BONES

Chris Smither’s 80 years has taught him that it’s all about the song on his 20th album in NOLA.

70: SONGWRITERS SHOWCASE

Communities are connected as songwriters come together to share their stories in this NC town.

by Gang Zhou

Photograph

CHAPTERS

EDITORIAL

PG 10: STAFF

People who keep us going.

PG 11: OUR CONTRIBUTORS

The people who make our stories come to life.

FRONT COVER

Music is always with us.

Photograph by eclipse_images

SOUTHERN COMFORTS

PG 14: GUITAR MAN

Thomas Rodriguez has found his way back to his roots after years of making classic guitars.

PG 18: BY SOUTHERN HANDS

Drumsticks made with a little magic in LA.

PG 20: STORYTELLER

Terrance Jackson brings black stories to a new audience on the oldest stage in the South.

PG 22: LIFE WELL BLESSED

SOUTHERN SNAPSHOTS

PG 78: WILD AT HEART

Horses and patients healing each other in SC.

TO DINE SOUTHERN

PG 28: CELEBRATING SPRING

Planting gardens and baking cake in TN.

PG 30: SOUTHERN TABLE

An Arkansas home cook takes on the task of testing old recipes from her vast collection.

PG 34: GATHERINGS

Cooking experience at Andiamo Lodge in AL.

PG 38: ON OUR PLATE

A standout take on collards with curry in SC.

PG 40: NOTEWORTHY

Four refreshing drinks from around the South.

PG 42: SOUTHERN TASTEMASTERS

Southern hams at Darden’s Country Store in VA.

Charles Esten’s road to success has been a long beautiful road. 90

PG 82: TROLLING AROUND

Visit the world of trolls at Cheekwood Gardens in TN.

PG 84: LAY OF THE LAND

Our readers submit photos of their South. Photo above at Fresh Aire Barbecue in Jackson, GA submitted by Jefferson Ross.

A ROAD LESS TRAVELED

PG 90: CAMP GREYSTONE

Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of NC, this girls camp is not your typical summer camp.

PG 98: WHERE WE WENT

Finding peace at Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner, SC.

Chaz Lindsay, Pulito Osteria | Jackson, Mississippi

In Mississippi, our rock stars wear aprons and wield sharp knives.

It takes a creative spirit, an artful eye, and a deep passion for food to become a great chef. Maybe that’s why, in Mississippi, we have a healthy reverence for all those who’ve dedicated their lives to transforming simple ingredients into unforgettable experiences. From classic Southern comfort food to locally sourced and internationally-inspired cuisine, Mississippi is the perfect destination for all those who like their travels flavorful and fulfilling. Learn more at VisitMississippi.org/Flavors.

#WanderMS

STAFF

Scott Speakes Publisher

Genie Gaither Jones Editor-in-Chief

Rebecca Cashwell Design Director

J. M. McSpadden

Liesel J. Schmidt

Patrick Evans-Hylton Contributing Editors

Eric J Wallace Social Media Specialist

Richard L. Jones Copy Editor

Advertising Sales Specialists

Brittany Sanders brittany@okramagazine.com

Scott Speakes scott@okramagazine.com

Patricia Lewis pat@okramagazine.com

CONNECT WITH US

facebook.com/okramagazine @okramag contact@okramagazine.com

by Stieglitz

Photograph

CONTRIBUTORS

MARIANNE LEEK is a retired high school educator who continues to teach part-time at Tri-County Community College. She lives with her husband in western North Carolina, where she spends much of her free time enjoying the outdoors. More of her work can be found in The Bitter Southerner.

JENNIFER STEWART KORNEGAY is a freelance writer and editor based in Montgomery, AL. Her work has appeared in Garden & Gun, Southern Living, The Bitter Southerner, The Local Palate, thekitchn.com, Bake From Scratch, Paste, Travel&Leisure.com, Nashville Lifestyles, Birmingham magazine, Alabama magazine, Georgia Magazine, Alabama Living magazine and more. She’s interested in everything, will write about almost anything but most often reports on Southern culture, food and travel. jenniferkornegay.com

ERIC J. WALLACE is an award-winning lifestyle journalist based in Staunton, Virginia, who has contributed to top national outlets like WIRED, Outside, Reader’s Digest, Atlas Obscura, Best American Food Writing, Modern Farmer, and more. He is a two-time James Beard Foundation media award nominee and was named an International Association of Culinary Professionals Best Feature Story media award finalist in 2021. drericjwallace@gmail.com

JOSEPH MCSPADDEN is a freelance writer and music enthusiast whose work has appeared at nodepression.com and at mbird.com, and The Mockingbird Journal, a publication that examines faith in the real world. His work has also appeared in Richmond, Virginia’s Style Weekly, the capital city’s premiere culture magazine. Joe is fascinated with the way words and music impact our lives and can be used as a vehicle for healing. He currently resides in Virginia with his wife Suzanne where he enjoys writing for okra. magazine and spending time with his 17 grandchildren. Yes, you read that right. 17 grandchildren.

ROY SCOTT is a freelance writer living in upstate South Carolina. He was the executive producer of the popular South Carolina public radio program, Your Day, and hosted on-air features about Southern people, places and history. In addition, he executive-produced the public television nature program, Expeditions with Patrick McMillan, and the travel series, Your Day On the Road. An Air Force veteran, Roy enjoys his volunteer work with military veterans and their families.

JIM BEAUGEZ is a Mississippi-based writer whose work has been published by Rolling Stone, Smithsonian, Oxford American, Garden & Gun, Guitar World and other publications. He also created and produced “My Life in Five Riffs,” a documentary series for Guitar Player that traces contemporary musicians back to their sources of inspiration. jimbeaugez@gmail.com

JIMMY PROFFITT lives in East Tennessee with his husband, 4 dogs, and 5 cats. Working in marketing by day, his personal time is devoted to his website, The Appalachian Tale, developing new recipes, is working on his own cookbook, and has written a kids book he hopes to publish very soon. You can find him on social media as @theappalachiantale and online at theappalachiantale.com

Final espisodes of Season 12 celebrate Summer!

Vera Stewart is host of the VeryVera Show, syndicated across the Nation in 42 markets. The show combines Vera’s natural teaching ability and etiquette insight with modern twists to your grandmother’s favorite recipes. Vera Stewart is also a nationally recognized cookbook author whose career in the food and hospitality industry spans nearly four decades. For a list of markets that air the show, go to veryvera.com/show

veryvera.com @veryverastewart

Vera Stewart, by Peter Frank Edwards.

CHAPTER 1 SOUTHERN COMFORTS

ROOTS ROCK MUSIC

THOMAS RODRIGUEZ MADE A NAME FOR HIMSELF BUILDING CLASSICAL GUITARS. NOW HE’S PIVOTED BACK TO HIS FIRST LOVE: ELECTRICS.

Written by Eric J. Wallace / Photography Courtesy of Thomas Rodriguez

Thomas Rodriguez stands hunched over a high workbench in the corner of the 1,250-ish-square-foot basement-turned-woodworking-studio in his Staunton, Virginia, home using a set of century-old Japanese chisels to hand-carve the gently curved, concave flame maple top of a custom Les Paul style electric guitar he’s building for Matte Henderson, a protégé of famed King Crimson lead axeman, Robert Fripp.

“They’re expensive, but the quality of the steel is absolutely insane,” says Rodriguez, 62, palming the jet black, wood-handled implement into the beam of an articulating spotlight. “They hold an edge like nothing else I’ve handled, and believe me, I’ve used a ton of supposedly high-end stuff.”

He lays the chisel on a towel draped across the workbench then runs a hand through a messy, graying pompadour of slicked back hair before commencing a tour that, for a lifelong guitarist like myself, feels a lot like stepping into a small-scale Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. To our left, a chest-high shelving unit holds racks of grainy electric guitar bodies that have yet to get necks, pickups, hardware, or finishes.

Music-lovers would recognize most: There are riffs on the beloved Fender Stratocasters of iconic bluesmen like Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eric Clapton, or Buddy Guy. Next come versions of Telecaster style six-strings reminiscent of honkytonk superstars like Merle Haggard, Dwight Yoakam or Brad Paisley. There are also variations of the single cutaway Les Pauls made famous by shredders like Warren Haynes, Slash, Billy Gibbons and Derek Trucks.

Thomas Rodgriguez

rack of about eight newly completed guitars hanging from the ceiling above a table-sized vintage belt sander and seven-foot-tall drill press. He takes down a highly customized Buxton Special and sets it on a display table for review. This one has a naturally stained Korina body with a golden quilted maple top, violin-esque f-hole, cream binding, handwound gold pickups from Richmond-based maker Lindy Fralin, a matching hand-machined Bigsby-style bridge from Virginia’s Callaham Guitars, new-old-stock vintage nobs, and a hand-cut, three-ply black pickguard. Its tongue-and-groove mahogany neck boasts a dark, Indonesian Rosewood fretboard, cream binding, mother of pearl dot inlays, and a black, paddle-style headstock with vintage gold tuners and Rodriguez’s signature inlaid in mother of pearl. Everything about the guitar screams work-of-art. And there’s a good reason for that: Rodriguez solo-builds each instrument the old-fashioned way without the help of computerized machinery using nothing but top-of-the-line woods, finishes, components, and hand tools. The result is an immaculate instrument that looks and feels like something plucked from the 1950s or 60s. This one will soon be on its way to The Music Emporium in Massachusetts — one of the nation’s most revered fine instrument dealers — where it will retail for about $6,000. The commission is the result of a 2021 partnership with the company that Henderson helped broker.

But other models are less familiar. “I call this one the Buxton, which is basically an upscale reimagining of the 1958 Epiphone Crestwood,” says Rodriguez, showing off a dark, elegantly rounded mahogany body with a flat, double cutaway at the neck that flares into a pair of stocky, slightly outward-angled horns. Originals are revered among collectors, as only about 100 were produced before Gibson assumed control of the company and altered the design. Rodriguez places his work-in-progress back onto the shelf then points to a

The latter discovered Rodriguez in the late-2010s while playing on a project with famed guitarist-composer David Torn, who owns multiple Rodriguez guitars and is known for his film scoring and work with stars like Madonna, David Bowie, Tori Amos, and John Legend.

“Well, Matte’s a total guitar nerd and started messaging me all these crazy, hyper-specific vintage guitar questions on social media and we ended up becoming really great friends,” says Rodriguez. Henderson had him build a prototype for a signature guitar just before the pandemic and was so impressed by the results he showed it to a buyer friend at the Music Emporium. A few

months later, “they reached out and said they’d be happy to take all the electric guitars I was willing to make for them. And that’s where my focus has been ever since.”

Rodriguez welcomed the pivot, but says it shocked many of his longtime followers. That’s because, at that point, he’d devoted the bulk of his 35-year career to building wildly high-end acoustic guitars for premier classical and flamenco players like Marija Temo and Ric Madriguera, a nephew and disciple of legendary Spanish master Andres Segovia.

“Not only does Thomas make some of the best instruments in the world, they’re among the finest ever made,” says Temo, a concert guitarist who founded John Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute flamenco guitar program. She was introduced to Rodriguez in the late 1990s through a mutual friend who taught graduate-level guitar at Virginia Commonwealth University. The two hit it off and spent five years working together on a groundbreaking 2003 signature hybrid model that combines features from traditional flamenco and classical six-strings in a single guitar.

“The craftsmanship and consistency of Thomas’ instruments is superb,” says Temo. They somehow sound larger-than-life, “as if you’re playing in surround sound. I am overjoyed to have an instrument that enables me to combine two very different styles of music without limitations or compromise.”

The collaboration put Rodriguez on the international map and brought an avalanche of new customers. But his path to success was far from a straight line.

Rodriguez. There was something magical about the way guitar-making not only combined art, Old World fine carpentry, and function, but had at its core the intention to catalyze further creative expression. “I fell head-over-heels in love. Once I got started there was just no stopping me.”

Rodriguez dove headfirst into a rabbit hole of research. He drove hundreds of miles to noteworthy music stores to study and play elite-level instruments; read how-to books; spent hours and hours poring over schematic drawings; and picked the brains of respected pro luthiers and players. His work improved by leaps and bounds over the next few years — and guitar playing friends took note. Some hired him to repair or tweak axes. A few ordered custom electrics.

A friend turned Rodriguez onto electric guitar as a freshman in Virginia Commonwealth University’s art program. The interest quickly spiraled into obsession, and, within a few months, he’d joined a local punk-rock band. After a few wayward semesters, Rodriguez decided college wasn’t for him. And it was about that time that he stumbled onto the notion of guitar-making.

“I was dirt poor and really nice electrics were crazy expensive,” he laughs. “The idea that I would ever be able to save up enough money to buy one seemed preposterous. So, being young, ignorant, and probably a little full of myself, I thought, ‘Hey, couldn’t I just make one?’”

Early experiments in a friend’s garage brought mixed results but sparked a firestorm of inspiration.

“I had a sculpting background and loved working with my hands,” says

The growing buzz among the Richmond music scene helped Rodriguez land a gig at a shop owned by renowned classical guitarist and VCU associate professor of music, John Patykula, in the early 1990s. Its specialty? Prograde nylon-string flamenco and classical guitars.

“The level of craftsmanship that goes into an acoustic instrument of that caliber was mindboggling to me and, if I wanted to compete with the best of the best, I needed to learn how to build at that level,” says Rodriguez. For instance, luthiers must plane, cut and steamheat thin pieces of expensive, ultra-premium woods then bend them into curved sides using a complicated array of clamps. Subtle differences in design like the shape of sound holes, internal bracing systems, neck joints, bridge material or even glue choice can radically alter a guitar’s sound. Complex inlay work may require using a razor blade to shape tiny, patterned slivers of variously colored woods, ivory, or shell that are then puzzled and glued into a micro-thin shelf in the guitar.

Then there was the difference in price. Basic new classical models sold for around $5,000, while top-shelfers demanded prices in excess of $25,000. Better still, demand for hand-made instruments was soaring among students and professors in graduate-level classical guitar programs across the U.S. Rodriguez promptly shifted focus. He made connections with fine lumber dealers and, in an effort to make his guitars standout, started salvaging rare, century-plus-old woods, ivory and mother of pearl from sources like antebellum-era porch columns, old handgun grips, antique pianos, South American furniture, and more. He took trips to Spain to observe Old World master luthiers, studied the production techniques of top brands, and honed his skills

crafting hybridized prototypes in a garage workshop after work and on the weekends. Once he finished a guitar, he’d tour the city and surrounding areas to get feedback from players like Patykula.

Incorporating their advice helped Rodriguez master his art. By the time he officially launched an eponymous Rodriguez Guitars brand in the late 1990s, he was widely known as an under-the-radar master and selling about a dozen handcrafted six-strings a year.

“The first time I played one of Thomas’s guitars, even unperfected, I knew he had something incredibly special,” Patykula told me in 2020. “He has an artist’s eye for detail and beauty, and the patience, talent, and knowhow you need to create a truly exceptional instrument. Each and every guitar he produces is a work of art.”

Rodriguez never totally quit making electrics. But a renaissance came shortly after he relocated to Staunton in 2016.

“What happened was, I stopped taking repair work to try and free up time to play more electric guitar and book more shows with my band, BEEX,” says Rodriguez, who’s served as the Richmond-based rock group’s lead picker for

about 30 years. The decision triggered an unexpected wellspring of creativity.

“I started getting tons of really interesting ideas for new electric guitars,” he says. “I found myself being less and less excited about my work in the classical realm and thought maybe should take a breather and explore my roots for a bit.”

Posting photos of experimental builds on social media attracted the attention of star players like Torn, Pantera’s Terry Glaze, Henderson, and others. New commissions flooded in and, by the time The Music Emporium reached out, Rodriguez had a three-year backlog and was almost solely building electrics. Having a steady customer that shoulders the burden of sales has freed him up to concentrate on creating and boost production to 30 or 40 guitars annually.

“The amazing thing about it is that, at 62, I’m back where I began and enjoying myself in the shop more than I ever have before,” says Rodriguez. While he still makes the occasional classical or steel string acoustic if a repeat client asks nicely, “I definitely want to keep heading down this path and let my imagination take me wherever it wants me to go.”

themusicemporium.com/collections/rodriguez

LA BACKBEAT MUSIC

“The drum is the heart of music. The saxophone can play and then rest, as can all of them except the drums; the drummer keeps going—he can’t afford to stop.” – Joe Jones, American jazz drummer.

You could say that drums are in Frank Kincel’s soul—the feel, the sound, the rhythm. Beginning at age ten, the Louisiana native had a passion for banging out a beat and even handmade a bass drum pedal with his father for a drum he’d found in the trash.

“We spent the day bending some flat steel, mounting a hinge on boards, fashioning an axle,” says Kincel, recalling the long-ago Saturday he spent all day working with his father on the pedal. “The prize of it all... an old wooden stick shifter knob for a beater. It was crude, but it worked, and I was ecstatic. I played until they called me in for dinner.”

just a hobby. In fact, since 2014, Kincel has been creating custom drumsticks as a business from his shop in Lafayette, Louisiana—though the story of how he got there is hardly linear. In fact, you might say it was as complex as jazz drumming.

Forty-five years later, he’s still playing, and drums have become more than

“While I was working at Scott’s Drum Center in the early 2000’s, I had gotten a reputation for my abilities to repair percussion instruments, which I still do,” says Kincel, who has, over the course of his career, played music and taught lessons in addition to working in the drum shop. “I began dabbling in building drums and even created several of them. I really wanted to build drums as a profession, but after researching and discovering market saturation, I decided to search for another possible outlet—which led me to drumsticks.

“How hard could it be, right? After researching traditional machines, I learned what I needed and began the search for that lathe,” Kincel goes on. “After what seemed like an astral alignment, I found a lathe

Frank Kincel

Written by Liesel J Schmidt / Photography by JohnMelancon.com

SUPERIOR DRUMSTICKS MADE WITH THE HELP OF A LITTLE MOJO, VOODOO & GRIS-GRIS

within days of looking, contacted the owner and began the nearly yearlong negotiation to acquire it. It eventually came down to crunch time or the lathe would go to scrap. Finally, I decided to go for it. The lathe was picked up in New Hampshire, in true Louisiana form, while Hurricane Sandy was making landfall on the Northeast coast. Clearly, it had to be blessed a bit. The truck delivered the lathe in October of that year, where it sat for nearly a year while my brother and I cared for our mother, who was always very supportive of my drumming passion. After her passing in August of 2013, I resumed the drumstick project and booked a flight to have a visit with the last man standing at Goodspeed Machine Co. to discuss the lathe a bit, meet the man whose dad designed this lathe and visit the last remaining machine shop manufacturing tooling for this lathe, which was actually originally designed for the furniture industry and adapted to make drumsticks. A month of designing, tooling, and finalizing drawings, fabrication of tooling began. After figuring out how I was going to make tips and butts on the drumsticks, I made the very first batch of LA BackBeat drumsticks in January of 2014.” Since then, LA BackBeat drumsticks have become known for their quali-

ty, feel and the sound they produce. “Little did I know that, from a smallscale operational standpoint, some of the artifacts of machines I built and a tighter quality control, along with a little magic mojo, vexing voodoo, gumbo gris-gris, I could make a drumstick that has a high durability and wearability factor that lasts anywhere from two to four times longer than the major manufacturers’ sticks,” Kincel says.

To create his LA BackBeat drumsticks, Kincel uses hickory wood from the Appalachian region, as hickory is the most sought-after wood for drumsticks because it naturally possesses a property that absorbs impact, in addition to being one of the hardest hardwoods in North America. In addition to the superiority of the wood, Kincel has high standards for the finished product—a quality which he feels is lost with mass manufactured drumsticks. “Handmade or boutique products have a higher degree of quality control from start to finish,” he says. “Before they are shipped to a customer, nearly every pair of sticks is rolled again, to ensure that they are perfect.”

LA BackBeat drumsticks can be purchased directly from labackbeat.com as well as from select music retailers nationwide.

TAKING NOTE watching, listening and

TERRANCE JACKSON: BLACK STORIES DRAW A NEW AUDIENCE TO OLDEST SOUTHERN STAGE

Written by Trudy Haywood Saunders / Photography Courtesy of Barter Theatre

Every great work of fiction-whether Shakespeare, Twain, Fitzgerald, and everything in between- has distinct elements that set it apart from “just another story.” The tale of Abingdon, Virginia’s Barter Theatre, home to the only remaining truly resident acting companies in the country and the state theater of Virginia, is no different except that this story is true, from the squealing pig to the former intern who saves the town from economic disaster during a global pandemic.

But even the best stories have to begin a new chapter at some point, and in light of the national protests following George Floyd’s death in police custody, Barter’s leadership team, including Producing Artistic Director Katy Brown, decided it was time for a change. “We knew we had to start telling more black stories, but not just black stories,” Terrance Jackson, Director of Outreach for Barter Theater says. “We wanted to create an environment where we could help black playwrights tell stories about this region in particular.”

The first thing that Barter did was select plays by black playwrights during the 2020 Appalachian Festival of Plays that focused on the Black Appalachian experience. Jackson started as a member of a committee to read plays by Black playwrights, but what spawned from there became known as SHINE-Illuminating Black Voices, a free annual event which he directs.

SHINE-Illuminating Black Voices is a free community event that is now an integral part of the annual Appalachian Festival of Plays in

February. Throughout the year, the theatre collects stories from the Black community throughout the Abingdon and Appalachian region. They take stories from there to create prompts for playwrights to read through for story ideas to inspire them to write monologues, the top six of which are chosen to be performed by professional actors and directors in front of an audience. During the event’s first year, the 170-seat Smith Theatre sold out, so it was moved to the main stage at the Gilliam Theatre the next year, with double the attendance.

Jackson, a Sarasota, Florida native, began as a Barter Player, the theatre’s acting company for young adults. After leaving the theatre in 2017, he came back to Barter in 2020 to help Katy Brown launch the Moonlite Drive-in as an outdoor performance venue during the pandemic.

“When I first got here, I remember it being a challenge,” Jackson says. “There just weren’t a lot of us here. Now that I’ve been here a while, there were Black people here, they just didn’t feel comfortable coming to the theater. They didn’t feel like it was theirs.”

Expanding on the success of Skeleton Crew in 2023, Jackson is excited about upcoming performances of Home, a melodic coming-of-age story about Cephus Miles, a hardworking North Carolina farmer, which will open the theatre’s new season as its first production. It will run February 17 through March 17 with 28 performances.