This is the first of two episodes this month. The first focuses on a fantastic organization right in my own backyard; Wolfbane Productions. Wolfbane is in Appomattox, Virginia. The county of Appomattox has a population of 16,353 and is home to the historic site where General Lee surrendered to General Grant, ending the Civil War. The community, about 18 miles from Lynchburg, VA, is an agricultural community filled with farmland and rolling hills.

For 16 years, Wolfbane's Artistic Director, Dustin Williams ("Gene's Boy" as we will discuss), has built a resilient, inventive, and joyful community of artists. These artists are comprised of local actors but also a large cohort of performers from larger metropolitan areas. We discuss how Dustin has created an artistic home for so many and how what may seem a contradiction in these divisive political times when rural communities are pitted against urban communities through political movements and media narratives. We learn how at a Wolfbane Production, people discover they have much more that binds them than tears them apart.