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'The New Yankee Workshop' comes to town, films scenes on Rappahannock River and at Kenmore Date published: 6/9/2005
THE HOST of "The New 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. 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.
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