Charlie Byrd and Jeffrey Meyerriecks opened the Theatre season in January, playing a wide-ranging repertoire of classical, jazz and Latin American guitar music to a packed house. A return engagement for October 1997 is under consideration.

Smithsonian at Little Washington
Many patrons who regularly attend the Smithsonian at Little Washington chamber music series have been writing to the Smithsonian to express their appreciation. A copy of one letter was sent to the Theatre and we quote it in part: "We live in Washington, Virginia, and The Theatre at Washington is one of the joys of living here. My wife and I look forward to performances here by the Smithsonian Chamber Players. A large part of the pleasure of these performances is the talks by Ken Slowik describing the instruments and something of how the composers came to write the music . . . . Please know how much these Smithsonian concerts do for the quality of life in the Piedmont of Virginia." The series, now in its fifth year, brings to our community performances of the highest caliber, often played on historic original instruments.

The two final Smithsonian concerts of the current season are scheduled in April. The Smithsonian Chamber Players will perform French and German baroque music on Saturday evening, the 5th. On Sunday afternoon, April 27, the outstanding piano and cello team, Lambert Orkis and Kenneth Slowik, return by popular demand to play works of Bach, Beethoven and Schubert.

SPRING 1997 SCHEDULE INSIDE ~
PLEASE SAVE IT FOR REFERENCE

In keeping with the cosmopolitan tastes of our audiences, two plays are of French origin. February's play The Hypochondriac is a new translation of Le Malade Imaginaire by Molière, the great genius of comedy and satire. In May the professional French American theatre company Le Néon brings Bécassine a light-hearted show based on France=s legendary comic strip character shown here.

Agatha Christie's well known thriller Witness for the Prosecution is presented in March by the Christendom College Players, who are returning to the Theatre for a fourth year.

In April, writer/actor Wayne Clawson performs The Shooting of Dan McGrew, a humorous one-man show. And Dear Liar by Jerome Kilty brings us the bewitching repartee of George Bernard Shaw and a famous actressChere in a staged reading by Ann Russell and Michael Joyce.

Greater Tuna, the droll and popular creation of Texas playwright Jason Williams, rounds out the spring season in June with a joint production by the Four County Players of Barboursville and Live Arts of Charlottesville.

The Theatre/the Information Age/and You
The Theatre welcomes the growing number of reservations and inquiries that are sent to its e-mail address: TheatreVA@aol.com. The Theatre will send schedule updates by e-mail on request to those providing an e-mail address.

Thanks to skilled help from one of the Theatre=s information-age supporters, our home page on the world wide web is now up and running. This provides patrons with a convenient way to check on the Theatre's current schedule. Reservations can then be made on the spot simply by clicking on, and completing the reservation form, receipt of which will be confirmed by the Theatre. Our address: members.aol.com/VATheatre/theatre1.htm. But instead of trying to remember this you could include it on your favorite address list.