Entertainment abounds in Beaufort County this weekend
Published 7:59 pm Thursday, September 22, 2016
For those looking for entertainment, there’s plenty to be found in Beaufort County this weekend.
Saturday is Museum Day Live!, a nationwide initiative designed to open museum doors to everyone who wants to go. The event is sponsored by Smithsonian magazine and offers free tickets to museums via its website. Included are free house tours of the Palmer-Marsh House and Bonner House, both part of the Historic Bath State Historic Site. The visitor center also will feature activities from centuries past: cornhusk doll-making; loom weaving, demonstrations of colonial toys and how to make a ship-in-a-bottle. Revisiting a past way of life continues at the Van Der Veer house, with presentations on the old arts of rope-making and book-binding.
“It kind of showcases our historic homes and what we have to offer with our local volunteers,” said Elizabeth Midyette, historic interpreter at the state historic site.
Midyette said this is the third year the historic site has participated in Museum Day Live!, and each year, the event has steadily drawn more visitors — approximately 80 of the Historic Bath Site’s 18,008 visitors last year came for Museum Day Live!
“We’ve had a growing and positive response to it. I know, last year, it was kind of rainy, but we still had a good group of people. So it’s something you can enjoy on a rainy day,” Midyette said.
Tickets to the event can be printed by visiting www.smithsonianmay.com/museumday. Midyette said showing the ticket on a smart phone also counts for free entry.
In Washington, at Arts of the Pamlico’s Turnage Theatre, art will literally spill out the doors onto West Main Street at the Hands On Arts Fall Festival Saturday. In addition to artists’ demonstrations of their skills, vendors will showcase their work-for-sale. For children, a Kids Zone, where a child can play an instrument, help paint a piano, visit the comic book booth or try on theater makeup, will be set up and East Carolina University’s Storybook Theatre will perform at noon.
Also on the schedule at the Turnage Theatre on Saturday is a special screening of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” at 3:30 p.m. Washington resident and Century 21 broker Scott
Campbell sponsored the classic children’s film as a tribute to actor and director Gene Wilder, who died in August. Tickets for the movie are $5. Tonight, Saturday night and a Sunday matinee will feature “Stay As Dead As You Are,” a community theater comedy on the Turnage stage.
At the Washington Civic Center, the Pamlico River Quilters’ Guild’s annual show will be on display today and Saturday. According to one of the event’s organizers, Wendy Bissenger, hundreds of people from across eastern North Carolina flock to the show every year to see the original designs.
“They come from Greenville, Morehead, Wilmington,” Bissinger said, adding that members of quilt guilds regularly travel to attend quilt shows. “It really is a regional thing.”
Judge Scott Murkin, both a North Carolina native and a nationally known quilter, spent six hours Wednesday touring the maze of quilts, studying each and pointing out what he loved about each, as well as helpful pointers to their makers, Bissinger said.
“It’s not just a critique, it’s a learning experience,” Bissinger said.
Rounding out Saturday is Pickin’ on the Pamlico, an event celebrating the bounty of eastern Carolina waters. Hosted by Washington Harbor District Alliance, it features all-you-can-eat blue crab and shrimp, along with live music and a table-decorating contest between those participants who’ve purchased tickets for an entire table. A major fundraiser for the downtown Washington development organization, the event has enjoined the help of downtown merchants, whose window displays are vying for the best Pickin’ on the Pamlico crab display.
The Washington events have been billed as a Fall-Fun Getaway weekend.
To purchase tickets for Pickin’ on the Pamlico, visit www.washingtononthewater.com. For more information about Arts of the Pamlico’s weekend events, visit www.artsofthepamlico.org.