The Barter Theatre Story - by Mark Dawidziak (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Published in 1982, The Barter Theatre Story: Love Made Visible tells the colorful history of a remarkable American cultural institution. Opened by native Virginian Robert Porterfield in 1933, the Barter Theatre offered the people of Abingdon, Virginia, and the surrounding area entertainment and a much-needed escape from their Depression-era working lives. It became the State Theatre of Virginia in 1946 and it is where the likes of Gregory Peck, Ernest Borgnine, Patricia Neal, Ned Beatty, and Hume Cronyn got their starts. Mark Dawidziak, a journalist from New York who spent much of his twenties in Appalachia and grew to admire the theater, tells the improbable story of the Barter Theatre, which remains one of the last year-round professional resident repertory theaters in the country.

About the Author

Mark Dawidziak has been a theater, film, and television critic for more than thirty-five years. He has been the TV critic at the Cleveland Plain Dealer since 1999. His many books include the horror novel Grave Secrets and such nonfiction works as The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Dracula and two acclaimed histories of landmark TV series: The Columbo Phile and The Night Stalker Companion. Five of his books are about Mark Twain.