Ron Short selected to compose musical about UVa-Wise

Ron Short is setting the history of The University of Virginia’s College at Wise to music.

And he hopes to enlist the help of alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends of UVa-Wise to let the many voices of the College be heard.

“I want to hear from people who have dramatic stories to share, whose struggles to make a life in this region have been affected by their relationship with the College, whose experiences might give credence to the importance of the 50th anniversary,” Short says. “The College's history is important not just for its own institutional identity but because that history is now an important part of many people's lives and a part of this region's cultural identity.”

Short will work with Roadside Theater, the students and staff at UVa-Wise, and the people of the region to develop a musical theater work based on the Appalachian ballad form using myth, legend, personal histories and stories of the region. The new music will premiere at UVa-Wise in April 2005 with additional performances at various community arts venues.

This commissioned work will not only celebrate the 50th anniversary of UVa-Wise, but will reaffirm the College’s commitment to the people of the region and to its Appalachian heritage. This ballad will draw upon the personal stories of area citizens while engaging and educating theatre and visual arts students in how to translate local voices into musical development, theatre, and movement.

“It is the stories of the people who have helped make that history that are most important,” Short says. “I want the music for this composition to reflect the full range of cultural and historical experience and to be influenced by as many voices as possible of people who have taken part in that experience. It is in the stories of our lives that we find drama and all good music is filled with drama.

“I am composing new music right now based on conversations and my own knowledge but next fall is when the real work of creation begins. The creative development and production of this new music will involve all of the College's departments of creative arts - music, drama , dance and visual arts.”

In addition to the College’s faculty, staff, students, and alumni, Short hopes to involve community members in the production and performance.


The project is funded by a grant from the Continental Harmony. Continental Harmony is an initiative of the American Composers Forum in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts as a way of bringing composers and communities across the country together for the creation of original musical works reflecting the unique history, culture and spirit of each community. UVa-Wise and its community partners, which include Roadside Theater, were selected through a competitive process to be Virginia’s representative in the Continental Harmony program.


For the past 27 years Short, has provided a vital, authentic, musical voice for Roadside Theater. He has performed in 18 Roadside touring productions, and has written the scripts and musical scores of eleven musical plays that the company has toured across the U.S. and in Europe. His music has been performed at Lincoln Center, the Smithsonian, the U.S. Olympics; at theater festivals in the Czech Republic, England, Wales, Denmark and Sweden, and at churches and schools throughout America. His powerful vocals, proven songwriting skills, and accomplished musicianship (on a dozen instruments) have been nurtured by the central Appalachian Mountain culture in which he was born and grew up, and strengthened by his collaborations with artists from other cultures.


He has been instrumental in developing Roadside’s cross-cultural collaborative projects which include full length, musical plays with Idiwanan An Chawe, the Zuni language theater from Pueblo Zuni, NM and Junebug Productions, the nationally recognized African American theater from New Orleans, LA. He is Roadside’s playwright and composer on Promise of a Love Song, a collaborative musical production with Junebug Productions and Teatro Pregones, the premier Puerto Rican theater from the South Bronx. Short has recorded and produced four albums of music and story: Wings to Fly, Cities of Gold, Singing, and Mountain Tales and Music.

If you have stories to share with Ron Short, contact him at jrshort@bellatlantic.net or call 276/328-0130.