Opening night for the 13th year of Alabama’s Official Folklife Play, “Come Home, It’s Suppertime” is April 3 at the We Piddle Around Theater in downtown Brundidge.
Lawrence Bowden, president of the sponsoring Brundidge Historical Society, still scratches his head in amazement.
Bowden, a charter member of the cast of “Come Home,” never thought that 13 years from the  “original opening night” he would still be taking the stage at the We Piddle Around Theater.
“When we started the play in the spring of 2002, none of us thought past that first year,” Bowden said. “We just wanted to do something to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of our town – of the rural South. We did a lot of thinking before we finally decided to take a chance on a folklife play. We didn’t know if we could do it and, if we could, we didn’t know whether anybody would come.”
The idea of preserving a part of the physical heritage of Brundidge came later – and was born of necessity.
Bowden said, first, the BHS had to come up with the stories and then round up the cast and musicians to put on the folklife play. Then, they had to have a place to perform.
“The City of Brundidge allowed us to use the old city hall building for the play,” Bowden said. “The building had been gutted by fire, but with a lot of support from the city and people in the community, the building was transformed into what is a very unique and appropriate place for a folklife play. And, we were able to preserve a Brundidge landmark, a WPA (We Piddle Around) project of 1940.”
Bowden said the success of “Come Home, It’s Suppertime” belongs to the “village”
of people who have been a part of the production and to the thousands who have come home, at suppertime.
“We thank them all and look forward our 13th year at the We Piddle Around Theater,” he said.
For available dates for the spring production of “Come Home, It’s Suppertime” the first two weeks of April, call 334-685-5524,  334-372-1001 or 735-3125.
Tickets are $25 and include the pre-show, a full, country supper and dessert and the award-winning, two-act folklife play.