George Washington's Fredericksburg Foundation

'New Yankee' TV crew visits to tape show featuring river's crib dam, Kenmore table

By LAURA MOYER
Published in The Free Lance-Star: 6/09/2005

Filming on the Rappahannocl THE HOST of "The New Yankee Workshop" is no diva.

Norm Abram, in town yesterday to film a Fredericksburg-based episode of TV's popular woodworking show, came with no entourage--no makeup people, no caterers, no flunkies.

In fact, yesterday's filming, which took place at the Rappahannock River and at the Kenmore mansion, was decidedly unglamorous.

There were just director-producer Russell Morash, cameraman Steve "Dino" D'Onofrio and Abram.

Two publicists from WGBH in Boston, which co-produces the program with Morash, also were on hand.

"The spirit of the show is that Yankee sensibility," said Kathryn Hathaway, one of the publicists. "It's very simple, it's very straightforward, and it's really well done."

The scenes filmed yesterday will be part of the show's 18th season, which begins in January.

Viewers will see Abram tell a Fredericksburg "side story" before making a modern-day version of an 18th-century table in the collection at Kenmore. He'll use wood from the river's 1854 crib dam, which was removed last year along with the newer, concrete Embrey Dam.

Filming the local scenes yesterday was hot, hard work, as about two dozen area residents involved in the project discovered.

Filming at the crib dam The "New Yankee" filming started at the river about 10:30 a.m. The premise was for Abram to ride downstream in a canoe while telling a brief history of the river and the city.

But getting it just right required several takes and lots of sweat from the Friends of the Rappahannock volunteers who served as extras in the scene. To provide background interest, they paddled up and down, up and down in full-on summer heat.

Abram plied a paddle with the rest, sharing a canoe with Bill Micks, an FOR volunteer and co-owner of the Virginia Outdoor Center.

Filming then moved to the crib-dam woodpile, an unsightly mess of timbers crusted with gray river silt. There, Abram met on camera with sawyer William Jewell of Historical Woods of America Inc.

Essentially, Morash wanted Abram to size up the pile as hopeless-looking. Jewell would agree, but using a portable sawmill on site, he'd show that underneath the timbers' rough exterior is lovely, high-quality wood.

That, too, required a few takes of unscripted conversation to get just right.

Then they headed to Kenmore, the home of George Washington's sister, Betty Washington Lewis, and her husband, Fielding Lewis.

For the first Kenmore scene, Morash drafted tourists Jack and Evelyn Mathers, visiting from Aberdeenshire, Scotland, to stroll a broad pathway as Abram told a bit of the mansion's history.

The couple, in the area to attend a wedding, had never seen the "Yankee" program. But like others involved yesterday, they were good sports about participating.

Kenmore Curator, David Voelkel talks with Norm Abram about the table Filming wrapped up indoors, as Kenmore curator David Voelkel showed Abram the table that will be copied.

It's a 1750 Virginia-made table in the neat and plain style, called a corner table, or handkerchief table--as Voelkel said again and again during multiple takes.

Again, the dialogue was unscripted, but that didn't mean Abram and Voelkel could say just anything. Morash gave specific directions about what information needed to be covered.

After several tries, it looked as if everything was going swimmingly when Morash called a halt.

"I think you tripped," he told Abram. "I thought I saw you trip."

"No," Abram said, lightly. "For once, I didn't."

They tried again. It seemed perfect. It wasn't.

"It needs a little life, gentlemen," Morash said. "It has a funereal aspect."

Once more, Abram and Voelkel discussed the walnut table and how Abram will make one just like it out of crib-dam oak.

Morash was pleased. "You hit all the right nuances there," he said.

Finally, near 2 p.m., everyone took a break for lunch. Then Abram and rest headed back to Washington's Reagan National Airport for the trip home.

Abram will build the table on camera later this summer, in the "Yankee workshop" located somewhere in Massachusetts. The exact location isn't publicized.

Eventually, amateur woodworkers will be able to buy their own copies of Abram's plans for the table, so they can re-create it in their home workshops.

Hathaway, the WGBH publicist, said the 2006 season runs from January through March, but she didn't know an exact run date for the Fredericksburg episode. It can be seen on Washington and Charlottesville-based public television channels.

To reach LAURA MOYER: 540/374-5417 lmoyer@freelancestar.com

Note: Our handkerchief table will be reproduced in the New Yankee Workshop on June 21& 23, 2005. Visit http://www.newyankee.com/yankeecam.php to watch the progress on their web cam.