<< Back 11/13/02 Carden produces first play as Kudzu director SMN For his first production as the new director of Kudzu Players, Gary Carden will direct his latest play “Birdell,” Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Nov. 21-23. The Kudzu performances will be held each night at 7:30 p.m. in the theater located upstairs in the Jackson County Courthouse. A performance will also be shown Wednesday night, Nov. 20, at the SoHo Grill and Racquet Club in Cullowhee as part of a dinner theatre. Dinner will be served from 5-7:30 p.m., with the performance to begin at 7:30 p.m. The one-woman show features Elizabeth Westall as Birdell Tolly who tells how her family was forced to move from their comfortable mountain home to make way for the Fontana Dam project. In flashbacks of her life, the 86-year-old mountain woman talks about aspects of this region’s history that haven’t been touched on a lot, said Carden. “The first aspect is how the government told these mountain people to move — for their country’s sake — so America could make aluminum for the war effort,” said the Sylva playwright. “Another aspect is about how the timber industry destroyed much of our mountain resources.” Birdell “tells it like it is,” Carden said, without any “sugarcoating.” Tickets for the Kudzu performances are $5, with a senior citizen discount of $4, and are available at the Jackson County Public Library. Reservations are required for the SoHo dinner theater performance and can be made by calling 293.9288. The restaurant is located across from the Cullowhee Post Office.