WASILLA There’s stiff competition at the ceramic exhibit and the town’s drunken first lady is dead. The
local tramp is on the prowl and a homely pig farmer is her target. A sudden wedding of the town’s
hairdresser and her honest country man is underway and a bumpkin woman’s baby is about to be
delivered.
Just another day at the county fair.
Welcome to Mineola, a small town located somewhere in the middle of nowhere in the South, where a
colorful collection of good old country folk gather at the Faith County Fairgrounds for the annual county
fair. It’s a place where beehive hairdos are still the rage, the rum cake is 100 proof, tabloids are the news
and hoop earrings are still the height of fashion. There’s never a shortage of laughs as the curtain goes up
at the Valley Performing Arts Center (VPA) production of “Faith County,” starting tonight.
Written by Mark Landon Smith, “Faith County” debuted in 1991 as a radio play before hitting the stage.
It was even featured on NBC’s “Dateline.”
“Faith County” is Steel Magnolias without the tragedy and with more laughs. The play magnifies the
southern stereotypes of gum-smacking trashy women, head-scratching rednecks and poor fashion sense,
mixed with small town togetherness and camaraderie. VPA’s end result is a rip-roaring trip through the
southern belt of America or at least how some may perceive it to be.
“Faith County is a hilarious look at life in a small town in the South,” said Rachel Underwood, director of
the play.
Underwood returns to VPA after a 12-year break to direct and star in what promises to be VPA’s funniest
stage show this season. For Underwood, working with a close group of actors has been a major bonus to
directing “Faith County.”
“There’s a naturalness and camaraderie with this group,” Underwood said. “We all have had to endure
some kind of personal issues that we’ve had to work out. One of our actors [was] injured on the ice,
babies were born. There were things we had to work out that ended up bringing us closer together. The
result is good chemistry and when these guys have fun on stage, the audience has fun.”
The nine-member cast includes newcomers and familiar faces to VPA’s productions, including first-timer
Connie Perkins, who has volunteered for 10 years on the sets and as a member of the board of directors at
VPA, but has never performed lines on stage until now.
Perkins plays Gladys Pimbleton, the mayor’s wife who drinks too much, evident by the pungent rum cake
she brings to the county fair.
“Learning the lines with the stage movement was a bit tricky,” Perkins said. “Rachel bugged me to play
this part, which was the only part I was really interested in playing, so I auditioned.”

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