Courtesy: Old State House Museum
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Sept. 13, 2012) - The Old State House Museum will host a multi-media reader's theatre musical of the Civil War, The Soldier's Song, today, September 13 at 7 p.m.
The Soldier's Song was written by Grammy Award-winning Nashville songwriter Wood Newton, a native Arkansan, and Daniel L. Johnson, long-time Nashville songwriter and associate professor of communication studies at Columbia State Community College in Columbia, TN. Johnson said that the script was written to tell the story of the Civil War in a historically-accurate and entertaining way, incorporating both the music of the era and newly-written songs.
The story of the war is told through the fictitious monologues of Private Sam. R. Watkins of the Confederate Army and Sargent James Landon of the Union Army. Watkins, from Maury County, TN, wrote his famous memoir, Co. Aytch, after the war. Landon spent six weeks in a Confederate prison camp, Camp Sumter, in Andersonville, GA.
The Soldier's Song features some of Nashville's most talented musicians and performers. The cast of the show will also feature several professional musicians from Nashville including Jim Sales, Natalie Murphy, Odessa Settles, and Alan O'Bryant.
The musical accompaniment will be played using the type of instruments available during the Civil War era including guitars, mandolins, banjos, fiddles, and harmonicas. More information about the production and its cast members may be found at www.thesoldierssong.com.
Tickets to The Soldier's Song are $10 each. Tickets may be purchased at the Old State House Museum, located at 300 West Markham Street in Little Rock, or through the museum's website.
For more information, please contact Brooke Malloy at (501) 324-8645, or email Brooke@ArkansasHeritage.org. Proceeds benefit the Old State House Museum.
This performance of The Soldier's Song is sponsored by Regional Recycling and Waste Reduction, Arkansas Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission, and the Old State House Museum Associates.
The Old State House Museum is a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and shares the goal of all seven Department of Arkansas Heritage agencies, that of preserving and enhancing the heritage of the state of Arkansas. The agencies are Arkansas Arts Council, Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, Delta Cultural Center in Helena, Historic Arkansas Museum, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, and the Old State House Museum.
THV's Ashley Blackstone spoke with Wood Newton, co-author of The Soldier's Song, to learn more about this special performance at the Old State House Museum. He also performed a song live for us. Click on the THVideo!
(Source: Old State House Musuem)