A glad heart makes a happy face…
    A cheerful heart is good medicine… – Proverbs 15:13 and 17:22

Thursday evening Rebekah and I enjoyed a fun date-night over in Rocky Mount. Now that we are based here in Tarboro, our larger nearby communities are no longer Raleigh and Durham – though they are still accessible – but Rocky Mount (54,000), Wilson (47,000) and Greenville (89,000).

Little by little, we are beginning to learn our way around this part of the state.

One huge plus for Rocky Mount is the extensive creative investment into re-imagining some of the old industrial and warehouse space. A few weeks ago I featured the expansive Rocky Mount Mills site where we met friends for dinner at The Prime Smokehouse. This week Rebekah and I discovered The Imperial Center for the Arts and Sciences (the redeveloped former Imperial Tobacco Co. site), where we attended a performance in the Community Theater.

Culture and the Arts:

We were there to enjoy the company’s production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The main attraction was to see our friend Kate Brittain as the character Hermia. Kate rocked, by the way, but the experience also reminded us of how fun it is to be at any kind of a live production.

Rebekah and I deeply appreciate “The Arts” in general and, although we do love a long relaxed restaurant meal together, our favorite experience of a night out would have to be dinner followed by the theater or a concert.

So this week we paired gourmet pizza at The Tipsy Tomato with Shakespeare at the Imperial Center. Quite the recipe for a great night.

When you consider the low cost, the wonderful venue, the laughter, the unparalleled mastery of language in The Bard‘s writing, the delight and the fun of such an enthusiastic production along with the sheer entertainment value of the evening – the troupe should be playing to a packed house every evening.

But they are not. And there are tickets still to be had. So I suggest you get online and grab them for today or the weekend while you have the chance.

I first read A Midsummer Night’s Dream many years ago, I have seen excerpts from time to time, and I am familiar with the plot. But this is the first time I have watched the complete production on stage and I was delighted.

There is a freedom, innocence and a lack of complexity to local repertory theater that is well suited to the soul of a lighter comedic production such as this. In consequence the audience was drawn in, the laughter was genuine and the evening a great success.

Stay with me at DerekMaul.blog as we continue to explore the unique culture and character of life here in and around Tarboro. And don’t miss the Imperial Center Theatre Group, especially this weekend.

Peace and love, always – DEREK