FORT SALEM THEATER PREPARES

FOR A BUSY WEEKEND

SALEM, NY — The folks at Fort Salem Theater are preparing to be busy this coming weekend, September 16-17, with shows at Gardenworks Farm on Saturday and Sunday nights, and a classic country concert featuring Spurs USA and The Ginley Girls on the theater’s Mainstage on Sunday afternoon at 2 PM.

The announced Saturday night Gardenworks-Fort Salem collaboration, Farm-to-Table Dinner Theater at the Movies (Route 30: Arts and Agriculture), has been sold out for two weeks, so the businesses have scheduled an encore performance for Sunday evening at 7 PM, September 17, at Gardenworks. Complimentary cheese will be served with adult beverages available for purchase, with a $20 ticket. Billed as a Multimedia Live Musical Event, Route 30 will include short films highlighting several businesses along the sixteen mile long county road, and music accompanying shorts that highlight artists’ concepts of the road’s scenery, ranging from oils, pastels, sketches, and twentieth century postcards, as well as new photography from artists Lynne Kerr and Rob Southerland. Musical selections include “On a Clear Day You Can See Forever” and “Every Road Leads Back to You.”

Rob Southerland serves as chef and cheesemaster for the Gardenworks events, at the farm where his wife,   Meg, grew up and to which the Southerlands returned more than twenty-five years ago to create their highly successful business. “I’m amazed by the Black Creek Valley where the farmland is so fertile, and I’ll talk a bit about its long history.” Referring to Meg’s cousins, Don and Seth McEachron, and their Battenkill Valley Creamery, Southerland added, “It’s like Lynne Kerr said. We’ll be covering Route 30 from Ice Age to ice cream.”

On Sunday afternoon, classic country-western music returns to Fort Salem as the Berkshires-based Spurs USA hosts a matinee concert that features the band of seasoned pros and introduces to the Washington County audiences The Ginley Girls, a new singing sisters group from Saratoga Springs. Musicians with The Spurs have played with a full range of headliners, from John Denver to the Grateful Dead. Fronted by Dona Frank-Federico, the band gives a relaxed performance, taking itself far less seriously than it does its music. The Ginley Girls range in age from seven to sixteen. Frank-Federico discovered the Ginleys this spring and has been working with them to hone their performance skills. While the afternoon’s performers span more than six decades in age, their mutual appreciation of the country catalogue is ageless.

Fort Salem’s artistic director, Jay Kerr, speaks of the varied nature of the Fort’s 2017 summer season. “We’ve produced a first musical by a Harvard religion professor, an opera diva purposely singing flat like Florence Foster Jenkins, a news anchor channeling Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, and now a show about a road. With a country concert as icing on the cake.”

Fort Salem’s final gasp of summer ends with a sold-out dinner, a country concert, and a wine-and-cheese show about a road. For tickets to Spurs USA and the Ginley Girls or for Route 30: Arts and Agriculture, each priced at $20, visit the theater’s website (fortsalemtheater.com) or call the box office at (518) 854-9200.