The June Buggin’ event is much like a June bug with a string tied to its leg and released to fly this way and that way at its own will and to the delight of the one holding the string.

Each June, the Brundidge Historical Society presents June Buggin’ at the We Piddle Around Theater and the shows are as unpredictable and magical as the flight of a June bug. Those who come to the summer story shows are treated to a mixed bag of smiles, sighs, and salty tears.

Bobbie Curtis was fabulous in “Birdell,” a one-woman play by Appalachian playwright Gary Carden of Sylva, North Carolina. “It’s Birdie’s story, plain and simple.” Then, another June, Carden took the stage himself, in “Blow the Tannery Whistle” and was as masterful as a storyteller as he was the creator of “Birdell.”

Barbara McBride-Smith took the audience down memory lane with her presentation of “Hello, Ricky Nelson, Goodbye Heart.” She pulled heartstrings along the sentimental journey.

Barbara Bates Smith portrayed Ivy Rowe from Lee Smith’s award-winning novel, Fair and Tender Ladies in the one-woman play, “Ivy Rowe.”

“Ivy Rowe will inspire you. She will shock you. We hope stay and see the show,” she told the supper crowd. They stayed and gave Bates Smith a standing ovation for her incredible performance.

Barbara Bates Smith performed at the We Piddle Around Theater for the 2011 Chili Country Christmas performance of “Deck the Halls Southern Style.”