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By JAINE TREADWELL

Features Editor

The Conecuh People are coming to the stage of the Claudia Crosby Theater Jan. 24-27 with what promises to be a unique and memorable theater experience.

Adena Moree, director, said the performers and the audience will be "on stage" to provide an intimate setting for a storytelling that will reach out and touch hearts of all ages.

"’Conecuh People’ is a reaffirmation of the basic foundations that we all hold dear – home, family, community, school," she said. "Sadly, we sometimes have to grow or, perhaps, leave as did Wade Hall (author of the book, Conecuh People, from which the play is taken). The play helps us to recognize that where we grow up makes us who we are and we carry a part of it wherever we go."

Hall’s book, "Conecuh People" is about the people who influenced his life as he was growing up in rural Bullock County.

"Wade Hall lived so far back in the sticks that he thought Union Springs was the city," Moree said. "A group of faculty members from Troy State toured the Union Springs area and visited many of the places that he talks about in the book and will be talked about in the play. We visited several graveyards and took a lot of pictures which will be used in the play as projections."

Moree said because the play is about intimacy, it was important for the play to be performed in an intimate setting.

"That’s why we’ll all be on stage," she said. "The seating will be flexible and the audience will feel a part of the story."

Because of the staging arrangement, there will be seating for only 200 at each performance.

Performances are set for 7:30 p.m. Jan. 24, 25 and 26. Matinee performances will be at 2:30 p.m. Jan. 26 and 27.

Tickets are $5 each and will go on sale Tuesday. Tickets for "Conecuh People" are available only at the Troy State University Adams Center box office.

The play was written by noted New York playwright, Ty Adams, who, like Hall, is a graduate of Troy State University.

The cast includes 29 principal actors and 10 actors in supporting roles.

The stories are told through Wade Hall as he looks back to his childhood and youth with fond remembrance.

Two Troy State University students will play the role of Wade Hall. Brain Goodin will play the mature Hall and Jason Thomasin will play Hall in his youth.

The cast includes performers from Bullock County, TSU theater students and six of the "people" are from Pike County – Julie Pinckard, Nancy Campbell, Eleanor Bassett, Ed Hicks, Millie Baker and Jenny Davis.