2004

Local Theater Group Provided Cast for Science Fiction Film

Short Tract-Five members of the Short Tract Town Theatre Group participated in the filming of a movie, The Empty Lake, this past summer in the Rushford area. Dr. Dawn Bennett, the director of the group, was first contacted and asked whether she knew of local, middle aged people who might be interested in playing some of the smaller parts, and the following parts were assigned: Carolyn Ricketts and Richard Kennedy played the grandparents of a little female ghost, Flora. Linda Brown and Ray Suriani portrayed Ruth and Richard Haster, the parents of the heroine, Rebecca. Jeremy Hadaway was a ghoulie. All worked as volunteers.

Much of the movie was filmed at both Rushford Lake and the “Pink House” in Wellsville. The Director, Jay Woelfel, is the son of the couple who own the Pink House, and he also spent summers at the family cottage on the Lake. Other local sites in Rushford and Scio were settings for some of the film shoots.

Mr. Woelfel, after being involved in a variety of projects such as documentary film about the Titanic, the Battle Star Galactica Project and the Sci Fi Channel, finally made his dream of coming back to this area, a reality.

The Empty Lake is a horror film about a woman terrorized by ghosts of people who had drowned. Linda Brown, President of the Theatre Group, thinks the film will go far, as it had a good director, cameraman and editor. The film will be released in approximately a year and will be seen on TV, probably on the Sci Fi Channel or Showtime. It will also be available at Blockbuster Video stores. So if you see any of these, your neighbors who have starred in this film, congratulate them for making it to the big screen.

Re-Enactors Rendezvous in Mudville

For nine noteworthy days during the middle of July, 1,200 colonial era living history buffs descended upon Mudville to re-enact a “rendezvous” of the sort which may have existed on the primitive American frontier. The event was the annual meet of the Northeastern Rendezvous & Living History Foundation, which takes place in different locations in the northeastern US every year, drawing people from Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New England. A local affiliate of the organization is the Moses Van Campen Longrifles of Allegany County.

The site chosen is part of a 750-acre game preserve recently gifted to the State of New York. Here about 400 tents were pitched and for sic of the nine days, no outsiders were allowed to intrude on this frontier experience.

One of the traders described the rendezvous as “America’s first shopping mall,” begun as a time when traders, trappers, Indians and soldiers gathered at an appointed time and place to swap wares, restock supplies, renew relationships and simply have a good time.

Our family sought out some colonial era attire and enjoyed our time at the event where everyone was willing to share his or her areas of frontier expertise. We learned about blacksmithing, wheel making, break baking, sword and knife making, hide tanning, moccasin making, building a teepee, fishing with a stick rod, black powder muzzle loading and shooting, pelt trading, pewter casting, venison and vegetable cooking, and enjoyed being part of the musical gathering where old time fiddle and banjo tunes were resurrected.

The participants faced true hardship wrought by the elements, as parts of the site were flooded by torrential rains, which arrived late in the week.

Article submitted by Harold Appell

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