The Porch on Windy Hill – 14 September 2025

The Porch on Windy Hill is a fabulous hootenanny in which a grandfather and granddaughter reunite after a tough misunderstanding tore them apart with the aide of the granddaughter’s boyfriend, who is writing a dissertation on Appalachian music. The music is definitely the highlight of the performance. The boyfriend’s deep knowledge of the history the songs becomes less and less about quirky knowledge and more and more personal and apropos. As everyone acknowledges that time and context can change situations, there are moments of great pride and great healing— but most of all, great music.

The songs were high energy, and each character’s feelings in any given moment were clear from the way that they played. Mira (Tora Nogami Alexander) was the most reserved, cautiously finding her footing in a fabric that already existed around her. It was similar to how her character felt when she was growing up in Windy Hill as an Asian American. Her boyfriend, Beckett (Morgan Morse) played with reckless abandon, enjoying the music only and missing the family dynamics that were also hovering in the air along with each tune. Edgar (David M. Lutkin) went back and forth in his surety, at times playing the central line and at other times pulling back to hear someone else shine. All of the actors demonstrated the ability to play multiple instruments at a very high level, and the musical performances were enthralling.

The story that existed in the space between songs was simple, and increased in specificity over the duration of the play. Even so, it seemed a little thin compared to the richness of the music, and at times there was a disconnect between the energy of the music and the vagueness of the plot line. The Porch on Windy Hill could very easily be condensed into a one act, though the slowness of the story does suggest an interesting dynamic of people being more comfortable expressing themselves through someone else’s art than in their own words.

Design wise, this show was absolutely beautiful. Andrew Robinson’s set really looked lived in. You could see the porch had been weathered by time, yet it also felt timeless and outside of space and time. John Salutz’s lighting and Sun Hee Kil’s sound beautifully showed the passage of time. I appreciated the subtly of Sun Hee Kil’s sound design, which comprised mostly of atmospheric sounds that helped ground the porch in a reality that included the audience. Grace Jeon’s costume designs were functional yet subtly coded to show each character’s personality.

The Porch on Windy Hill told a heartfelt story about how music binds people together, even if they take a long absence from each other. It provides a realistic view of healing a broken family— time alone is not enough, but in time more can be possible. The show itself was a highly enjoyable, engaging experience in which the audience was pulled in and held tight by the twists and turns of Appalachian music.

I attended this performance on a press pass from JT Public Relations.