Members of the Farmville community and beyond spent the evening sharing laughter and watching heartfelt performances from the Waterworks Players’ production of “The Charitable Sisterhood of the Second Trinity Victory Church” Saturday.

“The Charitable Sisterhood” Richmond-based Playwright, Bo Wilson, attended the performance and gave a Q&A segment after the play.

To view more photos of the event, click here.

“The Charitable Sisterhood” follows members of a small church in Pennington Gap, a town in Virginia. The members of the charitable sisterhood, who brave a flood to organize donations for a yard sale to benefit people in Guatemala, get more than they bargained for when they discover a stowaway in their midst, and more about each other.

Wilson praised the actors in the play, who included Daphne Mason as Charitable Sisterhood President Bea Littleton; Martha Womack as sisterhood member Lorraine; Valerie Wagoner as sisterhood member Tina Yates; Christy Leonard as Janet, the new woman in town; Caitlin Mazura as Riley, who appears under mysterious circumstances and Mason Kinne, who provided the voice of the deputy sheriff.

“You all did wonderful,” Wilson said.

Responding to a question from the audience if the characters’ dynamic personalities were based from people he knew, Wilson said he may have been influenced by a number of different people, but said there was no one inspiration for the characters.

“It was a combination of different people, maybe,” Wilson said.

He said he was inspired to base—and market—the play in Virginia after becoming discouraged from sending plays to productions he did not know and did not know him.

The first production of “The Charitable Sisterhood” was performed in Richmond, and Wilson said he had the actors who would play three of the characters in his mind while writing the play.

“I’ve spent most of my life in Virginia,” Wilson said, who later joked that he gets jabs from people for not actually being Virginian.

“It was a setting which I was familiar (with),” Wilson said about the play taking place in a small church. “I knew you would all be familiar with it. Everyone else would say, ‘oh how adorable.’”

After the Q&A, Wilson said he holds a lot of pride for “The Charitable Sisterhood” and the response that it has gotten from area audiences. The play has even been performed internationally.

“I’m very proud of it,” Wilson said about the production.

When asked how he would rank “The Charitable Sisterhood” among his other plays, Wilson said, “(The question) is a little like asking a parent who your favorite child is really? Certainly it’s my favorite comedy.”

Wilson has written more than 35 plays, according to his website. In addition to being a finalist for the National Playwrights’ Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Wilson is also a voice actor who can be heard in commercials and video games.

Jim Appleby, who lives in Ewing in Lee County and who attended the play, works with Lee Players and is putting on a production of “The Charitable Sisterhood” in April. He was shocked to discover the play, as Pennington Gap is located in Lee County.

“I knew I’ve got to do this one,” Appleby said.