The Shadow
CLIFTON FORGE, Va. (VR) —Appalfolks of America Association (AAA), a nonprofit corporation based in Clifton Forge, will begin its 40th year of promoting the literary and performing arts in Southern Appalachia on Dec. 5.
Founded by M. Ray Allen in 1985, AAA has had a positive impact exemplified by the late Kentucky Poet Laureate Dr. Jim Wayne Miller who once said, “Appalfolks is a force for good in Appalachia.” Miller, a famous author and professor at Western Kentucky University, served on AAA’s Board of Directors and often participated in AAA’s creative writing outreach to students.
On Dec. 20, 1991, Irwin R. Cohen, owner of the Historic Stonewall Theatre and R-C Theatres based in Reisterstown, MD, donated the Historic Stonewall Theatre to AAA. By May of 1992, AAA had restored the twin-cinema to its original purpose of serving as an Opera House in (1905).
After receiving the Historic Stonewall Theatre, AAA spent 12 years making incremental restoration improvements to the facility that includes an underground where dressing rooms are located, the lobby and auditorium on street level, an upstairs area that includes a movie projection room and balcony, and the top floor that served as the meeting room for Masonic Lodge 166 of Low Moor originally. AAA converted it into a ballroom where funds were raised for restoration work by conducting various forms of dance classes such as ballroom dancing and clogging. Even karate classes were held there.
In order to fill the seats during its 12 years of ownership, AAA developed numerous programs such as the Stonewall Players, a troupe of 10 actors and musicians from the Alleghany Highlands and Roanoke area in 1992, and The Virginia Opry, a country music troupe of 10 performers that made its debut on Oct. 17, 1992, under the directorship of Ray Tucker, a local musician and vocalist who served as the troupe’s first director.
In 1996, AAA formed Special Theatrical Artists Revue & Showcase (STARS), a troupe of 10 performers who faced intellectual challenges and/or physical disabilities. STARS made its debut in the theatre under the direction of the late Vivian Pendleton who also performed as a comedian in The Virginia Opry under the name of Bibbie June.
M. Ray Allen, the current director of The Virginia Opry who continues to serve as AAA’s president, remarked, “After making more than $200,000 worth of restoration improvements to the Historic Stonewall Theatre over the 12-year-period that I served as theatre manager, I persuaded AAA’s Board of Directors to donate the theatre to the Town of Clifton Forge in 2003.”
The Town of Clifton Forge changed the theatre’s name to The Historic Masonic Theatre and eventually empowered the newly formed Masonic Theatre Preservation Foundation headed by the late John Hillert to continue the restoration project AAA began in 1991. A reported $6.9 million has been spent in fully restoring the theatre that closed for restoration in 2012 and reopened in 2016.
Allen continued, “In 2006, STARS was filmed while performing in the theatre, and Appalfolks teamed up with Media Storm Productions of Virginia Beach to produce a documentary film titled “STARS.” The documentary film won a Bronze Telly, and the film can be viewed at the Clifton Forge Public Library. “
STARS will perform its “Hometown Christmas” variety show on Sun., Dec. 8, at 3:00 p.m. in The Historic Masonic Theatre under the direction of Paula Crance and Sonya Romanello with Chis Fisher serving as emcee. The troupe has grown from its original 10 members to 28 members.
As for The Virginia Opry, the oldest of AAA’s outreach programs, the Virginia General Assembly honored the troupe that has grown to include 12 bands made up of 71 members in 2017 by passing “House Resolution 397” to commend The Virginia Opry for producing country music shows in the Alleghany Highlands for 25 consecutive years. In 2020, Governor Ralph S. Northam signed “Senate Bill 283” filed by Senator R. Creigh Deeds to designate The Virginia Opry as the official Opry of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The Virginia Opry has a rich history of performing musical benefits for worthwhile causes, promoting, developing, and showcasing local talent, hiring nationally prominent performers to headline shows for The Virginia Opry, and inducting nationally prominent performers into The Virginia Opry. Some of those entertainers are Charles Billingsley, Bill Pinkney’s Original Drifters, Jimmy Fortune, and Michael Hoover and the Doug Lester Band, the performers who will headline The Virginia Opry’s “Ushering in the Christmas Season” at The Historic Masonic Theatre on Nov. 30, at 7:00 p.m.
In addition to STARS and The Virginia Opry, AAA has held free writers’ workshops that have served many high school and college students in KY, WV, and VA. For example, at the Kentucky Highlands Folk Festival in Prestonsburg, KY, AAA was invited to conduct free writers’ workshops that drew high school and college students from 11 counties. Free writers’ workshops at Douthat State Park and at Mountain Gateway Community College
when it was operating as Dabney S. Lancaster Community College served students from the Alleghany Highlands and from Greenbrier County in WV.
AAA teamed with TAP (Total Action Against Poverty) in the 1990s to organize the first adult literacy program in the Alleghany Highlands, and the Alleghany County Board of Supervisors designated the two nonprofit organizations as the official literacy agents for The Alleghany Highlands. AAA raised funds for the program, set up a room in the Historic Stonewall Theatre for teaching adults to read, and held a benefit for TAP when its building in Roanoke burned. The country music benefit at Alleghany High School’s Hodnett Hall raised $500 for TAP. AAA was instrumental in acquiring a $29,000 grant for TAP’s GED program.
Additionally, AAA conducted a creative writing outreach to the Augusta Corrections Center in Craigsville, founded a Virginia Junior Opry program that helped develop the musical and vocal talent of students in grade one through high school, and formed the Stonewall Children’s Theatre that performed such plays as Romeo and Juliet and Brigadoon.
Furthermore, AAA founded The Clifton Forge Players whose members wrote and performed original plays such as the late Wally Adcock’s I’ll Never Do It Again.
On Veterans Day (USA) in Richmond, The Virginia Opry performed at the Virginia War Memorial, and the performance was broadcast live on CBS.
Allen concluded, “Students from as far away as Harrisonburg were bused in to see programs that AAA presented at the theatre during our 12 years of ownership, and students from 11 Virginia counties and cities as far away as Virginia Beach came to the theatre to participate in our programs.”
Many nonprofit organizations have benefited from AAA’s musical benefits and donations, including Children’s Miracle Network, 9/11 Fund, Alleghany Highlands Free Clinic, Salvation Army, Clifton Forge Public Library, Clifton Forge Little League, Wounded Warrior Project, Tunnel To Towers, The Christmas Mother, and numerous individuals who were suffering from life-threatening illnesses or injuries.
