Welcome to... The Blog, and to me.

What an odd word "blog" is. It sounds like an old horror movie with Kurt Russell facing off with a huge, oozing creature whose only solid features are its teeth. But, of course, it is nothing so frightening as all that. This is the page where I share my thoughts about North Carolina's theater... culture... history... and generally anything that catches my attention.

Me.

Yeah, that's me, standing on top of the Elks Building in downtown New Bern, NC--colonial capital, second city of the state (not to be confused with the Second City comedy troupe), aiming my trusty camera in the direction of a fire that once took out a quarter of the town in 1922.

My name is Bill Hand, by the way--native Hoosier, the land of corn, basketball and Kurt Vonnegut. I was raised in Pennsylvania--all over Pennsylvania, in case you're wondering: my father was a Methodist preacher and we changed towns every two- to five years. I grew up, majored in theater and english at the delightful little Geneva College in Beaver Falls, PA (home of Jets great Joe Namath, by the way). I got married to the amazing Roberta Watson and moved to eastern North Carolina 'way back in 1995.

I don't consider myself Pennsylvanian or Indianian: I am a native North Carolinian by adoption (really: would you like to see my certificate of Adopted Carolinian Nativity? I ask in the hopes you'll say "no.") I love the pace of this state--the laid back, friendly attitude you get in ENC. The weather is most often fine and moderate; we are bordered on the east by the Outer Banks and beaches, on the west by tall and forested mountains, and north and south by the enormous egos of Virginia and South Carolina (we once referred to ourselves as a Valley of Modesty Between Two Mountains of Conceit).

North Carolina is one of the nation's fastest growing states; her biggest city, Charlotte, is also one of the fastest growing cities in the nation. We are the home of Billy Graham and Bull Durham, and we offered more souls to death on the battlefield (or in the sick tents) than any other Southern state in the Civil War. The first official call for freedom came from North Carolina, though we were next-to-last among the 13 colonies to ratify the US Constitution. While history books often treat us like footnotes, it is only because they are ignorant or jealous, or because we don't have the number of published historians that, say, Virginia has...

I have always been a lover of both theater and history. It didn't take me long after we arrived in New Bern one chilly January for me to become invovled in both: "Tea Time Theatricals" was a reader's theater run by a charming lady who also brought me into the New Bern Historical Society's annual Ghost Walk. Over the years I have worked as a character portrayer at Tryon Palace, the first governor's mansion in the state, and I have produced, directed, and acted in plays with my own companies (first, George's Dinner Club, then the North Carolina History Theater and, now, Carolina Heritage Theater and its creepy little sister Mayhem Productions).

For many years I have written the comic murder mysteries we portray; it was a few years back that I turned my attention to more serious works--the presentation of North Carolina history in the form of original musicals about Carolina history. I wrote the plays and lyrics and found local musicians to put together the music. Our first show was "Honour," which looked at a New Bern duel between a congressman and a signer of the US Constitution, along with the dreams of one of their slaves who desperately desired her freedom. I followed up with "Flight," about the Wright Brothers; then traveled in my mind to the mountains of the state for "Bushwhackers," the story of a husband and wife who fought together as guerillas for the Union during the Civil War. These were produced by NCHT before I left to found this company to found CHT whose goal is to travel with its shows.

A still image from "Flight," a musical telling the tale of the Wright Brothers' discovery of manned, heavier-than-air flight. Photo by Karl Mielenhausen

I plan to keep writing these shows as long as I can keep dreaming up one-word titles, I suppose. Which stories? There are many in our state's lore; Blackbeard of course screams for attention. John Wright Stanly, an overlooked patriot of the Revolution stands out; and of course there are many stories of African Americans who left their stamp on our state and the nation.

We are a new venture, starting small, visiting little towns in ENC and growing in steps as time goes by. We hope you'll support us and check us out.