What Happens When Great Writers Get Together

Scene from Welcome Home

There’s something fascinating about famous writers spending time together.

Recently I’ve been reading Ernest Hemingway’s memoir, A Moveable Feast. I don’t know how accurate his reminisces are, but I’m enjoying them. I am enthralled to have a glimpse into Hemingway’s Paris in the 1920s, into a circle of writers and friends that included Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce.

This may seem silly, but my reaction is a little like the way I feel when I find a People Magazine in a doctor’s office. But where People gets me thinking about beauty and style, writers hanging out with writers gets me thinking about art and ideas and the way writers can change the world, and the ways they challenge and inspire each other.

This kind of intersection of great minds—and of big hearts—is at the center of a play that will be performed at the Opera House this Sunday afternoon. The play is Welcome Home, written by Courtney Smith, a playwright from Greenbrier County. It explores the friendship between Pearl S. Buck, Oscar Hammerstein II and James A. Michener.

Welcome Home to make Pocahontas County Debut

Downloadable JPG Announcement

On April 29th, 2012 The Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation, Inc., in conjunction with Playwright Courtney Smith, will present the play Welcome Home. The drama transports the audience to the time when the internationally renowned American writer and Nobel Laureate Pearl Buck; another of the United States' most prolific and popular writers James Michener; and legendary lyricist of Broadway and Hollywood Oscar Hammerstein created the Welcome House Adoption Program for mixed race children. Through the play we will see these three characters grapple with the tough choices of the day and the realization that all children should be treated equally without regard to race or country of origin.

After the play Janet Mintzer, CEO of Pearl S. Buck International will speak to the audience about the Welcome House Adoption Program and how it has benefited countless children and families through its long and successful history.

The top notch group of actors includes Stephanie Bachman, Larry Davis, Danny Boone, and Jim Norris. Each cast member brings years of experience to the stage, they all have performed in the Greenbrier Valley Theater as well as other theaters in the region.