http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/img/EV_Logo_sm.gif This is the url http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org The first and ultimate online reference work about the Commonwealth /Hairston_Jerome_1974- Mon, 06 May 2013 15:47:19 EST http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Hairston_Jerome_1974- Mon, 06 May 2013 15:47:19 EST]]> /Alfriend_Edward_M_1837-1901 Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:26:24 EST http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Alfriend_Edward_M_1837-1901 Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:26:24 EST]]> /_I_would_fain_die_a_dry_death_an_excerpt_from_The_Tempest_by_William_Shakespeare_ca_1610-1611 Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:20:20 EST http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/_I_would_fain_die_a_dry_death_an_excerpt_from_The_Tempest_by_William_Shakespeare_ca_1610-1611 Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:20:20 EST]]> /Sea_Venture Thu, 06 Dec 2012 01:40:51 EST http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Sea_Venture Thu, 06 Dec 2012 01:40:51 EST]]> /Cline_Patsy_1932-1963 Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:45:03 EST http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Cline_Patsy_1932-1963 Tue, 27 Nov 2012 14:45:03 EST]]> /Munford_Robert_d_1783 Mon, 17 Sep 2012 09:13:40 EST http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Munford_Robert_d_1783 Robert Munford is best known today as a playwright, but he was far better known in his lifetime for his civic and military roles. He served in the military before, during, and after the American Revolution (1775–1783), and was active in colony, state, and local government in Virginia. Among other duties, Munford chaired committees whose members included Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. His literary output, consisting of two plays, a few poems, and a translation, were little known in his day. The Candidates and The Patriots both depict life in eighteenth-century Virginia and are believed to be the first comedies written in America, taking as their subject the politics of the day, from life in the House of Burgesses to the Revolutionary War.
Mon, 17 Sep 2012 09:13:40 EST]]> /Dance_During_the_Colonial_Period Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:25:25 EST http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Dance_During_the_Colonial_Period Dancing was the dominant pastime of colonial Virginians of all classes, though it was a special occupation of the planter elite. As the Virginia colony stabilized late in the seventeenth century, its inhabitants attempted to model their emerging culture after that of England, where dancing was hugely popular. Soon dancing began to take place in plantation homes, taverns, and halls built for the express purpose of hosting formal parties. A market developed for professional instructors, or dance masters, who were expected to know the latest dances from Europe. Dancing served a recreational, social, and political purpose; being a skilled dancer was an indication of good breeding, while balls gave men and women the opportunity to express themselves through their dress, partner, and choice of dance. Most dances fell into two main categories: "fancy" dances, such as minuets, allemandes, and hornpipes; and "country" dances. Country dances were simpler to learn and more egalitarian, as each dancing couple interacted with every other couple on the floor. Enslaved persons and lower-class whites held their own informal dance parties where they often performed jigs and reels—more loosely structured dances derived from the traditions of Africans and Scots, respectively—which were adapted by the upper class. By the 1790s, dancing schools had grown in number and in popularity, and lessons became available to Virginians of various classes. At about this time, the gentry class began to feel more ambivalent toward the more democratic country dances, which threatened social discord and even blurred racial boundaries in a culture that was becoming increasingly defensive of its slave system.
Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:25:25 EST]]> /Barter_Theatre Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:32:57 EST http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Barter_Theatre The Barter Theatre, located in the Blue Ridge highlands of Abingdon, Virginia, was founded by Robert Porterfield in 1933 and designated the State Theater of Virginia in 1946. It is the longest-running professional Equity theater in the nation. (The Actors' Equity Association is a live-theater labor union.) Opening its doors in the midst of the Great Depression, Barter earned its name by allowing patrons to pay the admission price with produce, dairy products, or livestock. The shows were sometimes forced to compete with the noise that accompanied bartered livestock. On occasion, the theater also paid playwrights, such as Tennessee Williams and Thornton Wilder, Virginia hams for their works rather than standard royalties. George Bernard Shaw, a vegetarian, demanded to be paid in spinach. The theater expanded in 1961, opening a second stage across the street, and has earned a national reputation through touring companies and its association with many prominent and influential actors, including Gregory Peck, Ernest Borgnine, and Kevin Spacey. The Barter Theatre won a Tony Award in 1948 for Best Regional Theater.
Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:32:57 EST]]> /Hoffman_William_1925-2009 Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:39:24 EST http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Hoffman_William_1925-2009 William Hoffman was the author of fourteen novels, four short-story collections, and two plays. His terrifying experience as a combat medic in Europe during World War II (1939–1945) dominated his earliest writing, including The Trumpet Unblown (1955) and Yancey's War (1966), which, according to poet George Garrett, are "at the highest rank of the American fiction coming out of World War II." Hoffman is also celebrated for novels that combine character-driven portraits of the South with action-mystery plots, and writing that joins tragic intensity with humor. Tales of murders and mysterious runaways—Tidewater Blood (1999) and Wild Thorn (2002), for instance—are fueled by Hoffman's sense of the macabre, while the backwoods of Virginia and his home state of West Virginia provide local color. Booklist has praised the writer's "evocative sense of place," but the Washington Post, in reviewing Lies (2005), wondered if Hoffman's prose hadn't become "swamped" in southern stereotypes.
Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:39:24 EST]]> /Hamner_Earl_Jr_1923- Fri, 28 May 2010 09:50:14 EST http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Hamner_Earl_Jr_1923- Earl Hamner Jr. is a writer of novels, television shows, and movies. Most notably, he created the popular semiautobiographical television series The Waltons (1972–1981), which was set in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and based on his 1961 novel Spencer's Mountain and the 1963 film adaptation starring Henry Fonda and Maureen O'Hara. Hamner's own hardscrabble experiences growing up in a large family in depression-era Schuyler, Virginia, informed The Waltons, each episode of which famously ended with family members wishing one another goodnight.
Fri, 28 May 2010 09:50:14 EST]]> /Trigiani_Adriana Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:32:57 EST http://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Trigiani_Adriana Adriana Trigiani is an award-winning author, playwright, screenwriter, and documentary filmmaker. She is perhaps best known for her novels, beginning with Big Stone Gap (2000), the first in a series of stories set in the Appalachian region of southwestern Virginia. The stories are told from the perspective of a lovable character whose wry wit reflects the author's own. Her writing has been described as "heartwarming without being saccharine," and by New York Times reviewer Andrea Higbie "as comfortable as a mug of chamomile tea on a rainy Sunday." Her professional career began in 1985, when she wrote Secrets of the Lava Lamp for the Manhattan Theatre Club. In the succeeding decades, she has distinguished herself as an author, scriptwriter, director, and producer for both television and film.
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