Simple Sage

In central Vermont, as the saying goes, all the women are strong. The evidence: the remarkable cast announced by the White River Valley Players for their Fall 2025 production of Simple Sage, a new one-act by local playwright Kate Youngdahl-Stauss.

The play features five women living in the same Granville, Vermont, farmhouse in two different centuries. In the 19th century, the three Lamb sisters share romance, heartbreak and their love of a vanishing landscape, while the 20th-century women explore the limits of friendship and social constraints.

The play turns on an extraordinary historical fact. Two of the Lamb girls married John Deere - the famous inventor of the plough that broke the plains and transformed a continent. Hancock’s Jeanie Levitan plays Demarius, his feisty first wife. Mischa Spittle, of Rochester, is Mellona the youngest sister who marries a neighboring farmer, and Granville’s Rebecca Smith is Lucenia, the sister who’s left behind.

Lucenia is also the only character who transcends time. Her spirit remains in her childhood home, Simple Sage, which still stands today on North Hollow Rd. Peg Purdue, of Starksboro, plays Rose, a Depression-era socialite from Scarsdale who wins the place sight unseen in a card game. Waterbury’s Kitty Coyne portrays her best friend who comes to visit and pushes Rose to reconsider all of her values. Granville’s Rick Smith provides voices and silhouettes for the men who remain firmly in the story’s wings.

Co-directed by Michael Purdue and Mian O’Dowd and produced by Don Crickard, the play premiers at The Theater located at the Valley Hub (former Rochester High School) on Friday, November 7, 2025 at 7:30 pm, with a 2:00 pm matinee and 7:30 pm evening performance on Saturday, November 8.

Each performance will be preceded by a delightful music cafe with live music provided by Hassett & Hart, the local duo of Steve Hassett and Todd Eberhardt, as well as refreshments to enjoy while you listen in and socialize with friends in the cozily transformed lobby space at Valley Hub.