ETSU’s theatre department should find out in April if they will get to perform the play Hear That Whistle Blow . Erwin Train A Coming at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.
“Hopefully, we’ll get to give one more performance (of the play) at the Kennedy Center,” said Bobby Funk, ETSU’s director of theatre.
ETSU was one of six schools selected to perform at the American College Theatre Festival, which is sponsored by the Kennedy Center.
“It was a huge honor to be selected for the festival,” Funk said.
The play had been entered and taken to the state festival in Cookeville last fall, where it had been seen and selected for the Region IV festival.
The production was performed Feb. 10 at the American College Theatre Festival in Hattiesburg, Miss.
The group performed the play once at the festival, closing the event that Saturday night.
“The play received numerous compliments,” Funk said.
The play, written by Funk, is about the history of the Clinchfield Railroad from stories collected by ETSU.
There are eight regions of the ACTF, and ETSU performed in Region IV.
“The national committee (of the ACTF) will select five or six shows to be performed at the Kennedy Center in April,” Funk said.
Hear That Whistle Blow . Erwin Train A Coming was funded with a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, as part of the Expanding Community Partnerships Program.
“The Kellogg grants are given to help teach history through plays,” Funk said.
The play was done in cooperation with the Unicoi County Heritage Museum. The set of the play was donated to the museum “so they can perform it in the future,” Funk said.

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