Peach State Summer Theatre will kick off a 10-performance run of “Ring of Fire” at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, June 17, at Valdosta State University’s Sawyer Theatre. Tickets are on sale now.
 
Conceived by Bill Meade and created by Richard Maltby Jr., “Ring of Fire” is a jukebox musical celebrating the music of the late, great Johnny Cash. Unlike most theatre productions, it is not a series of dramatized scenes on stage but rather a collection of real life moments inspired by more than 30 of the Man in Black’s most popular country songs, such as “I Walk the Line,” “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Hurt,” “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” and “Jackson.”
 
“Ring of Fire” is not a biography about Cash because that was not “the most important story available to tell,” Maltby wrote for The Guide to Musical Theatre. “Taking all the songs together, adding in the life he led, the person he was, the people he knew, loved, and sang about, it seemed to me that there is another story here. It's an almost mythic American tale of growing up in simple, dirt-poor surroundings in the heartland of America, leaving home, traveling on wings of music, finding love, misadventure, success, faith, redemption, and the love of a good woman and eventually returning home. It's about the journey of a man in search of his own soul, which is what in fact emerges when you consider all the details of Cash's life together. That seemed to be a worthy story to put on a stage — and the best part is we could tell it entirely in the songs.”
 
Individual admission is $31.28 for adults and $25.93 for students and senior citizens, including taxes and fees. A discount is available for groups of 10 or more.
 
The Peach State Summer Theatre Box Office is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays. It is located on the first floor of the VSU Fine Arts Building, at the corner of Brookwood Drive and Oak Street, and can be reached by calling (229) 259-7770. The online box office at www.valdosta.edu/psst is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.