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[shavethewhales]

Has anyone made it out to the Shepard of the Hills play(s) recently? I stopped by for a tour of the cabin/grounds last weekend and it looked pretty neat, but my family never managed to make it to the play. It's on my short list for this fall.

They are back to operating as usual after the shut down scare in 2013, but a lot of people still think they're closed.

[runner1960]

We saw it late last year.Just OK if you ask me. Terry Sanders overacts way to much for me in the Ollie Stewart role. It just seemed like they all rushed through the lines.

[sanddunerider]

With my schedule I can only see the play on sunday nights, Which were memorial and Labor day last year.  enjoyed both shows. I have seen it before..

I missed memorial day this year, rained out .

Hoping for Labor day weekend

[marolinesdad]

We really enjoy going at least once every season.  Our family loves the way that Terry plays Ollie.   We have been there when others play the part but it is just not as good.  SOTH as a whole have been trying to add thing to draw people back to their location.  Car show, gun show and things like that.   Make sure you take your turn at the new shooting gallery.  We had a ball on that. 

[KBCraig]

Terry Sanders overacts way to much for me in the Ollie Stewart role.

I haven't seen him in the role, but I can sure believe that.

It just seemed like they all rushed through the lines.

That was very true the last time I saw the play, 15 years ago.

In the '70s, you could clearly hear every word spoken. The sound system was renowned for its quality, and the actors (many locals) knew how to speak. From quiet conversations on the side, to fists thumping ribs in the Young Matt versus Wash Gibbs fight, the audience heard it all.

In 2000, the actors (by then mostly non-local professionals) rushed through like a junior high play. You know what I mean -- kids so eager to recite the lines without forgetting them, that they forget to actually interact with other actors.

I don't know if the sound system changed from '84 to 2000, but the audio quality definitely fell off. Over-acting, horribly over-played accents, and no modulation. I don't think the best sound engineer in the world could have fixed it, because the raw source was crap (pardon my language; I wanted to use a much stronger word).

Even in the early '70s, Ollie Stewart was a buffoonish dandy and a bit of comic relief in a serious drama. But he was only a bit of comic relief, not too far removed from the book. As much as I love Terry Wayne, I can see him stealing the whole show, with "a bit of comic relief" turning into a clown act. And if the audience can't understand the lines of the drama, why not? (Dr. Coughlan was much more of a comedic relief back in the day, with the audience reciting along, "Well, what would Sarah and the girls say?")

For the sake of my nostalgia, I've honestly been afraid to return to SOTH since then.

I'm also pretty jaded on flag-waving nationalism; I understand that such is endemic now in Branson, but I don't understand the relevance to the story of SOTH.