Stories Behind the Barn is the first show of the Bell Road Barn Players Senior Theatre Series. It's an original script, with the twist of a love story. It's a play about a ringing bell that signals the start of a performance. Stories Behind the Barn takes a glimpse into the inspired beginnings of the first community theatre in Kansas City, the Bell Road Barn Players. It celebrates the avid pursuit of summer theatre and the creative foresight of founders, Jenkin and Barbara David. Performed as readers theatre, Stories Behind the Barn focuses on the David family and their trek to a Midwest farm with an east coast vision for New England style barn theatre. It's a story of transformation, a dilapidated barn turned playhouse as a strategy for keeping four daughters busy during summer months. It's about the imagination, courage, hard work and charismatic leadership that turned a run-down acreage into an arts environment. It's about a fearless passion to try out new ideas, to create theatrical illusions, to erect structures of stone and to build a long lasting reputation for quality theatre. The Bell Road Barn Players took root and thrived in an unlikely setting on seven acres in Platte County, Missouri. Student actors honed their craft and eager volunteers became 'angels' preparing feasts of summerstock theatre. Stories Behind the Barn recalls the days when the Bell Road Barn was known for Shakespeare on Sundays, melodramas, musicals, puppetry, children's workshops, dinner theatre, picnics on the lawn and jam-packed seasons of comedy and drama. Inspired by family stories, cast memories, patron narratives and informative articles, Stories Behind the Barn is a play that reminisces. It highlights the ambitious thespian efforts that delivered stellar performances year after year. It revels in thickets of sunflowers and terraced pathways that once led to a turn-of-the-century barn. It recreates the feel of an intimate stage, old wooden benches, an iron chandelier, and burlap curtains. It recalls the ambiance of lilac bushes, a stripped awning, a nostalgic wishing well and a carnival-wagon box office. These were the simple amenities of the original Bell Road Barn. Stories Behind the Barn revisits traditions enjoyed by audience members and performers alike; the seasonal red card, rotating displays of local artistry, demonstrations of craftsmanship, a backyard bookstore, warm blankets in a drafty barn, backstage tours, post-show square dances and personal invitations to sign the guest book. In the 1950’s and early 60’s, Bell Road Barn fans arrived every summer, hungry for local theatre and for the feedbag sustenance of brownies and fresh lemonade. Stories Behind the Barn serves up some of these homemade memories as it relives early years at the barn.