Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1991-2015 (Creation)
Level of description
Ffeil / File
Extent and medium
0.009m³ (1 small box)
Context area
Name of creator
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Material relating to tours of venues in West Virginia made by a combined Welsh and West Virginian musical ensemble called Jen Wilson And Her New Friends, focusing in particular on the Historic Fayette Theatre in Fayetteville, West Virginia; together with material relating to tours of Wales and the Welsh valleys of Coal Camp Memories, an original one-woman production by the American storyteller, actor and writer Karen Vuranch. The material includes copious correspondence, largely between Jen Wilson and Karen Vuranch; funding applications; projected expenses; press release; concert flyers; performance schedules; material relating to Karen Vuranch and Coal Camp Memories; itinerary of the 2001 Wales tour and tour report; press cuttings, including those relating to a West Virginia tour by Swansea musical duo The Amigos; airline tickets and travel information; and an academic essay, 1994, by Karen Vuranch titled The Influence of the Welsh Immigrants on the Development of the Coal Fields.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Dated correspondence arranged chronologically.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Note
The Fayette Theatre, located in Fayetteville, West Virginia, was built in 1937 and opened the following year. Renovations began in 1992 under the direction of the Fayette County Historical Society, and the restored theatre was reopened in 1993. Run largely by volunteers, the Historic Fayette Theatre stages ten performances a year, with special nights by request. It is one of the few Depression-era theatres to have remained operative.
Note
Karen Vuranch is a storyteller, actor, writer and tutor who has toured widely throughout the United States. Often working alongside her husband, Gene Worthington, she is known for her traditional storytelling method, her plays based on oral history and her living history presentations of famous American women such as the novelist Pearl S. Buck, the humanitarian Clara Barton, the Civil War soldier and spy Emma Edmunds and the Irish pirate Grace O'Malley. Her original production of Coal Camp Memories, with which she toured Wales in 2001, celebrated the history of the West Virginia coal fields and the men and women who laboured there. Karen Vuranch teaches Introduction to Theater and Speech and Appalachian Studies at Concord University, Athens, West Virginia and gives public lectures and workshops. She is also Director and Administrator of the Historic Fayette Theatre, Fayetteville, West Virginia.
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Vuranch, Karen (Subject)