Green Pastures Fundraiser 2017
2017 · Green Pastures Campground, near Meredosia, Illinois
The 2017 Green Pastures Fundraiser continued the annual benefit tradition, with Ken Bradbury emceeing an evening of music, dance, and comedy performed by Green Pastures campers and counselors. Two by Two — celebrating their 30th year together as a gospel group — opened and closed the night, and Bradbury introduced each act with the personal stories of camp alumni: choreographer Brittany Davis, who came as a camper and now heads the dance department; pianist John Love, whose many talents Ken joked left him unable to "focus"; the talented Carls family; and longtime collaborators Roger Wainwright and Rick Barger, whom Ken first met at a cast party 30 years earlier and "liked so well I made him camp cook."
Program
Act I
- The Carls Trio (live accompaniment) — Nathan, Carrie, and Parker Carls
- John Love — piano
- Hope Cherry — vocal (accompanied by John)
- "Let's Make Up" Improv — Erin Washington, Hope Cherry, John Love, Nate Saint, with special guests Maddy Albers and Kyler Miller
- Rick Barger and Roger Wainwright
- Two by Two
Act II
- Becky McCartney — vocal
- Brock Gwaltney — piano
- Brit Davis — dance
- Piano trio — Ken, John (Love), Brock (Gwaltney)
- "Let's Make Up" Improv
- Two by Two
Performers
Ken Bradbury (emcee), Two by Two (John Rohn, Ray Anderson, Wes Hendricker), the Carls Trio (Nathan, Carrie, and Parker Carls), John Love, Hope Cherry, Erin Washington, Nate Saint, Maddy Albers, Kyler Miller, Rick Barger, Roger Wainwright, Becky McCartney, Brock Gwaltney, and Brittany Davis.
Production Notes
Improv comedy was a signature of the Performing Arts Camp, taught in the camp's two-day theatre intensive; the "Let's Make Up" group's games included "The Onion," "Last Man Standing," "Nightmare," "Genres," "New Choice," "Hitchhiker," "Hands Behind," and "Scene 3 Ways: A Place, a Problem." Ken used the night to remind the audience of the camp's mission — founded by Doris and Bud Groat in 1978, Green Pastures hosted roughly 400–500 kids a summer across a dozen camps, with each child paying about half the cost and some unable to pay anything at all.