It takes a village to tell Valdese's story

It’s 10 minutes till showtime.

A ring of actors and crew members gather behind Fred B. Cranford Amphitheatre and, after some notes and encouragement from the director and stage manager, everyone crosses their right arm over their left and links hands.

The group says a short, reassuring verse in unison. Each person squeezes the next person’s hand until the gesture has traveled all the way around the circle, and then, everyone twirls around at the same time.

“Break a leg!” Someone says.

This is the ritual before every performance of “From This Day Forward.”

Every year, Valdese’s Old Colony Players finish the season with the outdoor drama, which shares the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of the Waldenses.

The show begins in the late 1600s, portraying the horrific religious persecution the French group endured from King Louis XIV and the Catholic Church. The second part of the production shows the hardships Waldensians faced in the late 1800s, when the first settlers moved from their home in modern-day Italy to what would become Valdese.

The production flows smoothly onstage.

That’s only possible from the countless hours of work to prepare for it.

Leading up to opening night, choreographers piece together fight scenes and dances while an intimacy coordinator ensures the safety and comfort of actors in romantic scenes.

Then, before every show, actors and crew members spritz the ground with water to soften the amphitheatre’s earthy stage, making it more comfortable for the actors to walk, run, dance, fight, and fall on.

During the show, blood-curdling screams and gunshots can be heard from backstage as cast and crew set the tone for the massacre in Act I.

And after the audience files out, cast and crew stay behind to clean up and reset for the next show.

A number of cast members are also crew members, including Hunter Curtis.

Curtis, who has been part of the production for at least a decade, is the director and pyrotechnician this year. He also portrays two characters: Captain Gabriel in Act I, and John Long in Act II.

“You’re going to have problems for every show. This one, it was the age-old theater struggle of not having enough men,” Curtis said. “More specifically, we had actually lost three male actors in the timespan of two weeks, and this was also two weeks before we opened, so we had to shift gears really fast.”

Curtis said the shortage of male actors not only led to his playing two characters, but also cutting the character Louis Pons from Act I. His lines and actions were distributed between the characters John Rostan and Pastor Perrou.

An important element of the show, Curtis said, is support from the Old Colony Players (OCP) Board of Directors, the OCP Guild, and OCP Executive Director Corie Schreiber.

Schreiber has been OCP’s executive director for close to a year. This is her first production of “From This Day Forward,” but she has watched it almost every year since 2004.

Seeing it from beginning to end — from auditions to the final product — is a “totally different experience,” Schreiber said, adding that she is proud of what the cast and crew have accomplished.

“I recognize the work that goes into it now, where I didn’t before,” Schreiber said.

The production’s final shows this year are tonight and next Friday and Saturday on Aug. 7 and 8. It begins at 8 p.m. and ends around 10 p.m., with a 15-minute intermission between Acts I and II. The performance is held at the Fred B. Cranford Amphitheatre in Valdese at 401 Church St. NW.

Tickets are available online at oldcolonyplayers.com/productions. Tickets for adults 18-59 years old cost $20. Patrons over 60 pay $17. Students/patrons 18 and under can purchase a ticket for $14. Groups of 12 or more have the option to pay a group rate.