An O.Henry Celebration: Stories and Songs

After two days of blog posts about TV, you may wonder, does Dave-El ever leave the house?

Well, yes, I do. This weekend, Andrea and I left the Fortress of Ineptitude to see a live performance in Greensboro.

For 30 years, the Greensboro Historical Museum has hosted an annual event called “5 by O. Henry”, featuring plays based on 5 stories by O. Henry, also known as William Sydney Porter (September 11, 1862 – June 5, 1910) who was born in Greensboro.  He was a short story writer known for stories told with humor and twist endings.

His most famous story is “The Gift of the Magi”, the tale of a poor young couple who struggle to buy each other the perfect Christmas gift.  Della sells her most valuable possession, her beautiful hair, in order to buy a platinum fob chain for Jim's watch; while Jim sells his own most valuable possession, his watch, to buy jeweled combs for Della's hair. 

This year, the annual event underwent a change of name and a change of venue.

The new name is  "An O.Henry Celebration: Stories & Songs". 

The venue is a new state of the art theater located in the Well Spring Retirement Community. Andrea and I performed there this spring as part of a special choir gathered to celebrate Well Spring’s anniversary.

The theater is not exclusive to the retirees at Well Spring. Anyone can see any of the shows performed there. 

If you don’t mind being surrounded by really, really old people. Being in the company of people who may have been born the same decade O. Henry died can make you feel young. 

Interspersed with the stories were musical performances of songs that were popular back in O. Henry’s day, including a barbershop quartet that sang, among other things, that classic made famous by Michigan J. Frog, "Hello! Ma Baby" and other Tin Pan Alley classics.

Besides “The Gift of the Magi”, other stories that were performed include “The Cop and the Anthem” about a destitute man in New York City who is trying really hard to get arrested so he can have access to food and shelter for the winter; except despite his best efforts, he can’t get arrested for anything. Finally he gives up trying to get arrested and resolves to get a job and start living right. And THEN he gets arrested. “The Whirligig of Life” has a couple at each other’s throats and anxious for a divorce; until, that is, the justice of the peace actually gives them one. My favorite story was “By Courier” wherein a man finds himself mediating a dispute between an estranged couple who refuse to speak to each other. His translations of their respective messages are not exact but communication is somehow achieved.

The show lasts about 90 minutes and it is just pure joy with laughter and music. It was enough to almost make me forget my social faux pas just before the show.

As Andrea and I were entering the theater, a man approached me and asked, “Are you David Long?”

“Well, that depends on who’s asking.”

He mentioned we knew each other from college and our work in radio.

I tentatively ventured, “Ron?”

Nope! His name is Stuart. 

Well, that was embarrassing. Particularly when Andrea later pointed out to me he was wearing a name tag with “Stuart” on it.

Really! Stuart was there as part of the staff, working the sound system. Back in the day when I knew Stuart from college and our work in radio, Stuart was the tech guy. He could fix control boards and transmitters and what all. So nearly 40 years later, he’s still doing tech stuff.

And a good job of it too! The sound quality for all the actors and singers was exemplary.

By the way, who was “Ron”? I have NO idea.

But this is why I shouldn’t be allowed in public. Anyway, despite that, Andrea and I had a great time being entertained
by “An O.Henry Celebration: Stories & Songs".

Want To Go?

What: "An O.Henry Celebration: Stories & Songs"

When: 7:30 p.m. Sept. 13, 14, 19, 20 and 21; 3 p.m. Sept. 15, 21 and 22.

Where: Well-Spring Theatre, 4100 Well-Spring Drive

Tickets: $20, $18 for students, seniors and Greensboro History Museum members, $16 each for groups of 10 or more and Well-Spring residents, available at TicketMeTriad.com. For group sales (10 or more people) call Ticket Me Triad at (336) 907-2113 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays. Free, ample parking is available on site.