Celebrate the Earth with Woodlawn

Woodlawn Farm and Slack Winery invite you to join them in celebrating Earth Day 2011 on April 22 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Woodlawn Farm on Wynne Road in Ridge, Maryland.  Get into the spirit of Spring with the Blessing the Grapes in the Woodlawn vineyard, barrel sampling of young red wines from Slack Winery, egg coloring, an environmental scavenger hunt, a reading of the Lorax for children, and --- for adults only --- the release of Slack Tide Blanc.

Several friends from the local community of sustainable industries will also be on hand to share their knowledge and home-grown products.  Participants and vendors include:

• Dr. Stacey Dent from The Good Earth Natural Foods Company
• Shannon Schmidt from Solar Tech Inc.
• Dan Sweeney from BluHaven Piers
• Rich Pelz from Circle C Oyster Ranch
• Dan Shade from Dan Shade Custom Sawmill
• Christina Allen from Corn Crib Studio
• Elizabeth Ayres (writer)
• Tucker Grube-O'Brien from Slack Winery to offer barrel tastings
• Jim Grube, Master Gardener from Woodlawn Farm
• Terrapin Salad Boxes

Admission to the event is free!  For more information, call 301-872-5175.

The Newtowne Players to Fête Cast and Crew of woman: revised

To celebrate The Newtowne Players’ participation in the Eastern States Theatre Association Regional Festival this April, the theater is hosting a send-off for the cast and crew of woman: revised, winner of the 2011 Maryland Community Theatre Festival!

The Newtowne Players will perform woman: revised, an original one-act play by local author Trish Cole, on Thursday, April 14 at 7 p.m. The performance will be held at Three Notch Theatre on 21744 South Coral Drive in Lexington Park, followed by a wine and cheese reception. Woman: revised puts a comedic face on the mundane act of revising the dictionary definition of the word “woman.” Over the course of the play, the woman discovers she is no longer the classic feminine sweetheart she once was and learns to accept that her 21st century definition is more inclusive than she wanted.

Donations will be accepted at the door, and all funds will be used to help underwrite the expenses involved in taking the performance to the Eastern States Theatre Association Regional Festival, which will be held April 15-17 in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, where The Newtowne Players will represent the state of Maryland.

Cole also wrote Butterfly, which represented The Newtowne Players at the 2010 Maryland Community Theatre Festival.

For more information, call 301-737-5447 or visit http://www.newtowneplayers.org/.

Site Re-Interpretation Results in a NEW Guided Tour at Sotterley Plantation

Sotterley Plantation now has a NEW Guided Tour called “Discovering Sotterley” of the 1703 Plantation House, which will be ready for public viewing on Sunday, May 1st, the first day of the 2011 tour season.



Photo courtesy of Sara Fisher

 A team of people came together beginning in the summer of 2010 to collaborate on the creation of a new guided tour for Sotterley Plantation. The goal was to not only gain a consistent and strong tour that would better recount Sotterley’s 300 year history, but to ensure that the stories of all who lived and worked here, including those enslaved, were remembered and told. The end result produced a tour which offers far more than Sotterley’s original goal, however, and the new tour will stand out in its approach and the experience it offers to visitors.

The new guided tour will still examine the complex and rich three century history of Sotterley Plantation, but will now also look at the site and its people through the lens of the Colonial Revival movement. At the turn of the 20th century when there was a resurgence of patriotism in our nation, the site was purchased and painstakingly restored by Herbert and Louisa Satterlee. Their restoration efforts focused on portraying the ideals of our colonial past, yet in doing so both highlighted and masked different aspects of Sotterley’s history. The new tour will not only offer new glimpses and perspectives into this National Historic Landmark’s past, but will also showcase collections pieces not previously displayed, which help to tell Sotterley’s stories.

This tour was made possible when Sotterley was awarded an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant last summer due to the efforts of Board of Trustees member Merideth Taylor. The new tour was written by Ken Cohen, Professor of History at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, and this summer Professor Cohen will also help create a Plantation Tour of the grounds which will then be made into an audio tour for visitors. Finally, the grant will produce an audio version of the guided tour, a 10-minute video about Sotterley Plantation, and help place streaming videos on the website.

Sotterley Plantation's tour hours and prices are below:

1703 Plantation House Guided Tour: May 1 - October 31. Check in at the Visitor Center.

Prices: $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, $5 ages 6-12, 5 and under free.

Tuesday - Saturday: Tours at 10:30 & 11:30 am, 1, 2 and 3 pm. Sunday: Tours at Noon, 1, 2 and 3 pm.

For more information, call 301-373-2280 or visit http://www.sotterley.org/.