Towngate Opens 2026-27 Season With ‘Dark Of The Moon’
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WHEELING -- An Appalachian tale of spiritualism and romance will kick off Towngate Theatre’s 2026-27 season, as the theater will present “Dark of the Moon” on Sept. 11-13 and Sept. 18-19.
The Howard Richardson play is based on the “Ballad of Barbara Allen,” was adapted for the stage in 1942 and ran on Broadway in 1945.
Director Dave Henderson said he has done the show several times over the years in various settings and was happy to help bring it to the Towngate stage this month.
“It’s a fun show and a powerful show,” he said. “It’s sort of a play on prejudice and religious frenzy. It has a little bit of everything.”
The play is based in the Smoky Mountains, where a “witch boy” named John, played at Towngate by Timothy French, falls in love with a girl named Barbara Allen, played by Makayla Carney. To win her heart, he asks a “Conjure Woman” to make him human so he can join her world and earn her love.
Carney first performed in this play at age 14, when she was cast as a witch. Now as Barbara, she relishes the opportunity to sink her teeth into a role she has wanted to play since that first performance.
“She’s so juicy and rich and gets to go through every emotion,” Carney said. “I’m really thrilled to get to go on that journey with her.
“And it’s such a cool snippet of Appalachia,” she added. “It can see a lot of the Appalachian friends and family that I have in it.”
French said the audience will be able to relate to the central love story of the play.
“I think anybody can relate to being young and seeing somebody and falling in love and going, ‘Oh, I would do anything to be with that person. I would give up anything,'” he said. “And what I think is interesting about it is it’s the most beautiful dream you’ve ever had and it’s also this horrible, twisted, strange nightmare. There are consequences to love.”
Along with French and Carney, the cast includes Frank Wilson (Preacher Haggler), Tim Thompson (Conjur Man), Rachael Thompson (Conjur Woman), Flannery Muscar and Chloe Patt (The Witches), Brian Jeffries (Mr. Allen), Angela Hawk (Mrs. Allen), David Gaudio (Floyd Allen), Bob Gaudio (Uncle Smelicue), Gretta Foose (Mrs. Summey), Joel Nau (Hank Gudger), Isabella Street (Miss Metcalf), Wayne McCord (Mr. Bergan), Brendan Sheehan (Mr. Atkins), Alex Danehart (Burt Dinwitty) and Lokelani Weese (Edna Summey).
Curtains open Sept. 11, 12, 18 and 19 at 8 p.m. Sept. 13 is a 3 p.m. matinee. Tickets are $13 for Oglebay Institute members and $15 for nonmembers. The play does contain adult themes.