‘The Porch on Windy Hill:’ Playing music to banish misunderstandings and prejudice

 

By Lorien Strange
©2024 Telegraph Publishing LLC

As the pace picks up and the bow of the fiddle sways a little more violently, I can feel the vibrations of the players tapping to the tempo through the floor. Joy radiates from the stage as the cast spins through a tipsy do-si-do, accompanying themselves with a lively sea shanty.

It’s a refreshing change of pace from the careful hesitancy that dominates the rest of Act 1 of The Porch on Windy Hill, which weaves bluegrass tunes through a story about how we engage with our pasts.

Director Sherry Stregack Lutken co-wrote the play with the original cast of three during the isolation of the Covid pandemic. It was meant to show in Weston last year, but the performance was postponed after another uncontrollable circumstance — the July 2023 floods. Now in the intimate Walker Farm theater, this heartwarming production  explores our post-pandemic identities and shines brightest through the impromptu jam sessions — or picking parties, as we’re told — that form the soul of the story. 

We meet Mira and her partner Beckett escaping post-lockdown New York City for North Carolina’s Appalachian Mountains. As they search for authenticity and interviews for Beckett’s dissertation on American folk music, their coughing camper van leads them to an unexpected stop at the home of Mira’s estranged grandfather Edgar. Beckett is eager to know why biracial Korean-American Mira hasn’t bothered to mention that her white grandfather is still alive. Even though Edgar’s not keen to dredge up his guilt, Mira is forced to recall painful memories and contend with wholly different, deeply intertwined pieces of her identity. Finding the fiddle a more approachable instrument than conversation, the three are shocked by their own ignorance as they find connection through their music.

EJ Zimmerman (Mira), Rob Morrison (Beckett) and David Lutken (Edgar) accompany the story with a dozen skillfully played songs on at least seven musical instruments. You’ll be treated to foot-stomping performances on the guitar, harmonica, banjo, mandolin, violin, dulcimer and even the erhu — a Chinese stringed instrument.

The set is as equally engrossing as the music. Painted panels of the Appalachian Mountains frame the aging country house, and lighting designer Dawn Chiang turns set designer Mara Ishihara Zinky’s cluttered porch into a stage for soul-searching. Camping lanterns on, above and around the porch beckon you to step out of the dark. And what could be cozier than the shadows of leaves on the house in the sunset and moonlight?

The excellent set is completed by Sun Hee Kil’s tongue-in-cheek sound design. In the first scene, Mira stands blinking in an unseen camper van’s headlights as Beckett, offstage, valiantly Googles how to get it started again. When he slams the door, I catch myself peeking into the side-aisle, half expecting to see their van parked in the theater entrance. While the environment is immersive, The Porch on Windy Hill takes a bit of a different turn than Weston’s other productions this season and largely avoids breaking the fourth wall.

That’s not to say that the audience feels shut out. Rather, the fly-on-the-wall feeling gives more space for reflection on the show’s social commentaries. The stench of racism permeates Edgar and Mira’s conversations, sometimes explicitly denounced and sometimes just present enough to be noticeable. Granddaughter and grandfather also must confront the changing nature of communication: In a world where reaching out has never been easier, keeping in touch can still be far from convenient.

In addition to his role as Edgar in all of the show’s previous productions, David Lutken is also one of play’s four co-writers and serves as its music director. That might explain why he is the most comfortable character on the stage, wearing an amused grin at Beckett’s enthusiastic history asides as comfortably as he wear his Vietnam veteran baseball cap, courtesy costume designer Gregory Graham.

Morrison brings to Beckett an exaggerated nerdiness without it feeling overdone, and Zimmerman’s violin performances anchor Mira’s emotional roller coaster in moments of clarity and connection.  Though the cast’s performance of the story itself felt a bit rougher than that of the music, they’re sure to find more harmony in later performances.

The touching final scenes had audience members sniffing and dabbing their eyes as they left Walker Farm, the music echoing like a summer breeze well after Beckett packs up the instruments for the final time.

The Porch on Windy Hill, directed by Sherry Stregack Lutken and co-written by herself, Lisa Helmi Johanson, Morgan Morse and David Lutken, is playing at Walker Farm through Sept. 1 The show runs for two hours with a 10-minute intermission. Tickets are $25 to $69 each, and seats are selling quickly. Click here for tickets or contact the Weston box office at 802-824-5288.

After the show, David Lutken is selling a CD of the cast album, which may also be purchased online through Bandcamp. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Asian Americans Advancing Justice, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to civil rights and empowering Asian American communities.