Conference Countdown: Entertainment

Once again, WV Writers has lined up two stellar nights of entertainin’ for the Summer Conference.

On Friday night conference attendees will be treated to Joe’s Shorts Part II: The Revenge, a selection of live readings from the short plays of the late Joe McCabe. Before Joe passed away in 2007, we had already been planning on asking him for a repeat performance of Joe’s Shorts, which were a hit as entertainment at the 2006 Summer Conference. With Joe’s passing, it seemed only fitting that we go right ahead with plans for Joe’s Shorts II. We’re currently casting our net for cast members to take on roles in these plays, so if you have a hankering to act or just to honor Joe, please contact El Presidente Eric Fritzius at eric.fritzius@gmail.com.

Saturday night features another reprise of a past conference favorite, Pops Walker. Last year Pops absolutely blew the roof off the assembly hall using a guitar, sound system and his voice alone. Well, almost alone; he did have a particularly memorable special guest join him mid-way through the show, one Mr. Lee Maynard, who read a new short story he’d written while Pops provided musical accompaniment. It was a wholly impressive and appropriate collaboration, being as how Pops is responsible for the music in the Mountain Whispers audio adaptation of Mr. Maynard’s novel, Crum and is also responsible for the tunes in the upcoming adaptation of Crum’s sequel, Screaming With the Cannibals. If you were there to witness the show, you know how great it was. If you weren’t there, man, you missed out—but you now can make up for it with Pops return performance this year.

For Pops grand return he will be accompanied by not one but two very special guests in the forms of Keith and Joan Pitzer. Keith and Joan are known and respected West Virginia musicians. Haling from Kingwood, they’ve appeared as part of the Voices of West Virginia touring group with songwriters John Lilly, Kate Long and Todd Burge. Their song "Underneath a Blackened Moon" is included in the Mountain Whispers adaptation of William Blizzard’s, “When Miners March.” Their musical style is a blend of blend contemporary style with Appalachian and Celtic music. So it shall indeed be an unprecedented event to hear their style mix with Pops Walker’s trademark Southern Fried Zen Mojo style.

Pops and the Pitzers will also be leading two workshops during the conference, one a tag-team workshop on Songwriting and the other a panel discussion on Issues in the Arts.