For Andy Evans, as for Alexandria, the 1970s were filled with change.
IT was a time of changing attitudes, changing schools, and for Evans, it was a time to try to change from a Vietnam veteran and activist into… Alexandria’s sheriff?
”I love Alexandria,” Evans said. “That’s what I hope to convey in this show. We went through some very difficult times but the one thing that I learned was that as long as we could laugh there was hope for change.”
The show is “Andy’s Run,” the story of Evans’ candidacy for sheriff and how, at 26, that candidacy came about. “Sometimes I still don’t know what I was thinking,” Evans said. “I wanted to draw attention to the horrendous conditions in the city jail and being a candidate for sheriff seemed the best way to do that.”
The show is a comic, one-man exploration of Alexandria’s evolution, from a segregated Southern city, through its reluctant integration, to today’s diversity. Evans, a standup comic since the early 1980s, said that politics was great training for dealing with hecklers.
“They really are connected,” he said. “We once used laughter to avert a really nasty situation between members of the Nazi Party who were rallying at City Hall and a group of T. C. Williams students with bricks,” Evans said.
That is one of the sorties that Alexandrians who would like to have a look at the city through the eyes of a man who lived and laughed his way through some extraordinary events should check it out.
Where & When
“Andy’s Run” runs Friday, Jan. 24, and Saturday, Jan. 25, at The Old Town Theater, 815 1/2 King St. Tickets are $17 each, and can be purchased at the box office prior to the show. Tickets and more information are available online at www.theoldtowntheater.com, or by calling 703-535-8022.