World Premiere

by Harold Smith
directed by JanLee Marshall

December 1 through December 17, 2016
at B8 Theatre Company, 2292 Concord Blvd., Concord

Production links

• Susan Sobeloff's interview with Harold Smith, JanLee Marshall, and Daphne Dorman •

• ​Program •

Welcome to Little Fork, Rene Lundstrom

Be Curious.

Be Brave.

B8.

It’s summer 1958, and Russell Sonderberg is returning to Little Fork, Texas 12 years, two months, and 24 days after graduating from high school. Russell’s mother may be happy he’s back, but Valerie Johnson, Russell’s “very good friend” from high school, isn’t so sure his return’s a good idea. How will this tiny Texas town react when Rene Lundstrom arrives instead?

Welcome to Little Fork, Rene Lundstrom is a play of courage, honesty, and acceptance. Join us on a short journey to the past and perhaps learn something about today.

Cast

in order of appearance

NOLA PHILLIPS, employee of Valerie’s Beauty Shoppe — Shay Geraghty

VALERIE JOHNSON, proprietor of Valerie’s Beauty Shoppe — Nicole Thordsen

OLGA SONDERBERG, customer — Deborah Black

DOUG JOHNSON, Valerie's husband, a car salesman — Kyle Goldman

RENE LUNDSTROM, visitor to Little Fork — Daphne Dorman
Reverend WALLACE (Wally) NICHOLS, pastor — Max Minton

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

Sacramento-based Harold Smith is a retired math teacher who took up playwriting in 2005. Welcome to Little Fork, Rene Lundstrom is the second of his plays to receive their World Premiere as a production of B8 — his work Zelda's Mama's Cookin' debuted in December 2008 for Butterfield 8. In 2010, another of his plays, Dick Strickland’s Sycamore Service, won 2nd place and a staged reading at Stage West Theatre’s Texas Playwright’s Competition in Fort Worth. He maintains everything he knows about playwriting he learned from Gary Graves and all of the playwrights at Central Works Playwriting Workshop.