IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE (June 29, 2016) Before there was a “Scenic Highway 30-A” or a tourist-friendly “Emerald Coast,” there was only the backbreaking labor of timbering, the slow chugging of paddle-driven riverboats, hardscrabble living in Walton County’s small villages, and subsistence farming and fishing along the waterways of the Choctawhatchee RIver.
“Down By The Riverside,” the 2016 annual theatrical production of Walton County’s Grit & Grace, will feature the lives and times of the tough-skinned, hard-working pioneers who occupied the banks of the Choctawhatchee River. These pioneers relied upon its waters for transportation, commerce, and daily life for centuries. Before them, the “River of the Choctaw” (the literal rendering of “Choctawhatchee”) did the same for the local tribe by the same name and generations of aboriginal peoples before them. The Choctawhatchee is an irreplaceable natural resource, and so are the people and stories that have populated its bottomlands and basin.
The play, written by Ronnie McBrayer and directed by Brandon Elkins, will be presented at three different showings: Friday, July 15th at 7:00 pm; Saturday, July 16th at 7:00 pm; and Sunday, July 17th at 2:00 pm at the Walton High School Auditorium in DeFuniak Springs. Tickets are $15 for adults and $12 for children ages 12 and under. Tickets are available at the door.
Grit & Grace, Inc., is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization that preserves the history of the Greater Walton County area through storytelling, music, and dance. For more information please email info@gritandgrace.org; call 850-270-7008; or “Like” them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/gritandgraceinc.