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Have you ever wondered what Virginia Tech thinks about the "locals"?

There was an odd opportunity to find out when Tech's department of theatre arts put on a show recently called "Mountains Are a Feeling."

The show got a nice round of applause from the audience at the Lyric Theatre, and it was filled with good music. But somehow I think I may have gotten the wrong feeling from these mountains.

Now, it was generous of these folks to put on a show, but I thought it was a parody of the real culture that surrounds Tech. More "Hee-Haw" than homegrown.

The concept of the play was that we, the audience, had come from the university with a recorder to collect an oral history and these four actors proceeded to give us an earful:

"This here's my home."

"Whoa, Bossy, calm down there."

"I do believe Billy's got himself an idear." Or something like that. I'm sure you're getting the "pitcher."

The tone was set when the first overall-clad faux-billy came out on stage knee-slappin' and a'carryin' on with a great big Southern accent. Later, the same actor switched to being a hell-fire preacher, a'wavin' the Holy Bible.

Oddly, the script itself had a ring of oddball authenticity, as if it really were taken from oral history stories. Still, it's not clear that the stories were chosen to show any sort of respect for local culture. The show was billed as "quaint," and that certainly seems to be how the valley outside Blacksburg was portrayed.

In the end, I don't think any of it was mean-spirited, just misguided -- a big "Hee-Haw" Kornfield Salute from Tech to its neighbors. Underscoring this, as the show was winding down, one of the actors called out, "Y'all come back now, d'y'hear?"

I'd recommend that the theater department take a field trip off campus and listen to some real accents and watch some real people. We're a lot more interesting than "Hee Haw."

Bottom line: Virginia Tech's portrayal of local folks missed the mark.