Actress Susannah Wells will be part of filming an episode of the Western web series “Thurston” at the Fairfax Station Railroad Museum. Photo courtesy of Paul Awad
Rosie was the town prostitute. That was before she married an outlaw. Now she’s leaving him in the past and setting off for a new life out west. On a train, of course.
“Historically, the railroad was just such a great thing like that,” said Paul Awad, a professor of filmmaking at the Art Institute of Washington and director and co-producer of the Western web series “Thurston.” “It really enabled all the people to travel; they’re all heading west.”
Rosie has been a character in all three seasons of “Thurston,” a project Awad and his wife Kathryn O’Sullivan, a theater, play and communications professor at the Manassas campus of Northern Virginia Community College, produce together.
With the series set in a fictional 1880s Kansas Ozarks mining town, Awad and O’Sullivan have had challenges finding proper costumes and locations to shoot near their Reston home.
“We tend to write these things and not know how to film them,” joked Awad.
The final episode of the third season of “Thurston” will feature two characters embarking on trains, which brought Awad and his wife to the Fairfax Station Railroad Museum, housed in a restored 1854 Orange & Alexandria Railroad Station.
“Even though it’s a little later than the series is set, it’s perfect,” said Awad. “It’s close to our house and seems like a great mixing of what we’re doing and what they’re doing.”
“We’re trying to find ways to help community and provide facilities available in reasonable condition,” said Michael Chinworth, vice president of the Friends of the Fairfax Station Railroad Museum. “We want people to use it, to show it off, and help elevate historical awareness in the area.”
Filming for the episode will take place in and outside the museum on Oct. 26 from 4-6:30 p.m. and is open to the public. The museum will be open that day from 1-4 p.m.
The Fairfax Station Railroad Museum is located at 11200 Fairfax Station Road in Fairfax Station. Admission is free for children under 5 and Museum members; $2 for children ages 5-15; $4 for adults 16 and older.