The King and I

Performed on an 8-foot deep stage with a cast full of children, HART opened its doors in July 1984. Starring Suzanne Tinsley and Bruce Henderson, The King and I was HART’s first big production.

Camelot

By the time Camelot was produced in 1989, HART had removed some of the seats in the front row and built the stage out to 25 feet deep – making it a legitimate sized stage. The year before, HART had a really disastrous season. Productions during the 1988 season were not very good, and that had damaged the reputation HART had cultivated. To restore the theater’s reputation, HART pulled out all the stops for the Camelot production. The members spent all spring building sets and constructing costumes for Camelot, which was set to open in the summer.

Starring John Highsmith, who is the current president of the board, as King Arthur and directed by Katie Hoyle, the production was a huge success – quite stunning. One of the feature players was a large sheep dog whose owner, Howdy White, the local Episcopal priest, played King Pellinore.

Music direction was by Dick and Anne Trevarthen, who were the music directors of all the musicals HART produced for years. The success of this production did a lot to restore HART’s reputation and put HART on a positive path.

The Backstage News:

There were large columns on either side of the stage, and during one performance, one of the columns broke loose and fell into the audience. Fortunately, no one was hurt, and HART was left with a unique story to tell years later.

Fiddler on the Roof

Fiddler on the Roof was performed in 1990 and was one of HART’s biggest successes. Directed by Suzanne Tinsley (who played Anna in the King and I), and starring Dr. Steve Wall, Charmione Jones, and introducing Steven Lloyd to HART, Fiddler on the Roof was really well done considering the limited stagecraft available at the time.

While the lighting was a bit flat, the costumes were all handmade and the young man who played the Fiddler learned the iconic tune for this production.

The Backstage News:

The year before, Folkmoot – the international Dance festival in Waynesville, NC – brought in a Russian Dancing Troupe. One of the dancers defected at the end of the festival. He was THE Russian dancer in this production and everyone fell in love with him. There are attorneys, doctors and all kinds of people that participate in productions at HART and they were able to help him get a visa.

“One of the things about, particularly community theaters, is the people who are involved and on stage. They are a cross section of the people from town, and everybody is connected to the community theater because their children are involved and their neighbors and their friends, and so you have access to the mayor, and people that will step in and pull a few strings to help out. That’s what happened with the Russian dancer.” – Steven Lloyd

Oklahoma!

The production of Oklahoma! in 1993 coincided with the 50^th anniversary of the original production in 1943. This production introduced Melodie Galloway, a young ingénue, to the HART stage. Now Dr. Melodie Galloway, she would go on to become a leading lady on the HART stage for several years.

This show is important to HART’s history because it was the last musical to be performed in The Strand Theater.

HART had been trying to purchase The Strand Theater for several years, and during this production they were in negotiations once again. Unfortunately, there was a terrible fire on the east side of the state that killed several people. This led to the fire marshals cracking down on rules and regulations.

HART was given a short list of what needed to be fixed at The Strand before Oklahoma! could open. They purchased everything necessary, but to stay at The Strand, HART was going to have to pay around $250-300k to bring the theater up to code. When negotiations fell through, the board made the decision to move on from The Strand.

In the fall of 1993, HART moved out of The Strand and into Haywood Community College.

For musicals, HART would rent RV’s and park them on Wall St. behind the theater. Actors would change there, or in the exit areas off stage where curtains were hung up.

The Backstage News:

Melody was pregnant with her first child during this production.

Michael and the Pet Python – Michael Weaver, who played Jud Fry, had a pet python that he brought on set one night during a show. The 9-foot python got out of its cage and crawled across the roof of a set piece. No one knew about the python or that it was on stage.

The Diary of Anne Frank

Sadly, there were no pictures of this production, but nonetheless it was an important show in HART history. Steven Lloyd directed, making the staging as dark and depressing as possible. He opted to create a more claustrophobic attic set piled with boxes, crates and things that would normally live in an attic space, instead of depicting a nicer attic similar to what the Frank’s actually lived in.

Starring Steve Wall, who had played Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, and Anne-Marie Thomas as Anne Frank, this production was really well received.

With this show being serious and consequential, it was a fitting production to bid The Strand Theater adieu. Closing up after 9 seasons, HART said farewell to The Strand Theater and set their sights on new and better things to come …

The Backstage News:

During strike, Nat Niel, who played Peter Van Daan, the male romantic lead, was working on the electric cords in the rafters of The Strand. Everyone thought the breakers were turned off, but they weren’t. Nat cut through a live cord, which knocked him back and almost caused him to fall out of the rafters, which would have killed him. Fortunately that did not happen and he was ok. Now, over 15 years later, his daughter is a part of HART.

“So, some people stick around even after we almost kill them.” – Steven Lloyd

The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden was performed at Haywood Community College in 1995. It welcomed Melodie Galloway back to the HART stage and featured Christina Gooch as Mary. While not the first production to be put up on the HCC stage, it was the first show that was done well.

The year before had been the first season at HCC, and there was a learning curve transitioning from the small stage at The Strand to the 50-foot wide stage at HCC. The first musical, Annie Get Your Gun, seemed to get swallowed by the gigantic stage despite set pieces seeming massive in comparison to previous seasons.

When The Secret Garden came along, director Steven Lloyd learned his lesson – only lighting the parts of the stage he wanted the audience to focus on. The production was beautifully lit and designed, which elevated the quality of work HART produced. This was the most successful musical performed by HART in the HCC Theater.

The Backstage News:

Richard Helton, the young man who played Dickon, went on to become a finalist on the first season of American Idol.

During the opening weekend matinee, there was a power failure that knocked the power out halfway through the show. They held the show for about an hour until the emergency lights started to fail. During the outage the Wonder Tones, a local women’s 1940’s singing group lead by Suzanne Tinsley, entertained the audience. All four women happened to be in the chorus of the show.

Carousel

After breaking ground for the new theater in the fall of 1994, Carousel was chosen as the opening production, with the grand opening expected in the summer of 1995. The building ended up not being ready. In fact, the building ended up not being ready until May of 1997, so this production went up at Haywood Community College.

The production starred Melodie Galloway, and introduced Reta Scribner and Art O’Niel to the HART stage. Reta was an opera singer with the New York opera in the 1950s; Art was discovered by Melodie and brought in to play Billy Bigelow.

There was no scenic artist at HART at this time. Steven Lloyd spent all winter building the sets, which included making lattices out of cardboard and constructing the carousel horses.

A truly beautiful show, this production of Carousel was well received by the community.

The Backstage News:

Melodie Galloway was pregnant with her second child during this production.

Raney

Raney opened on May 2, 1997 just days after the theater construction was completed. The show, selected because it was penned by North Carolina author Clyde Edgerton, was cast in August of 1996 and slated to be the Grand Opening show in September of the same year. Unfortunately, the theater still wasn’t ready, so the actors ended up being on hold until construction was complete.

The set was very simple and minimal because there was really no time between the construction and the opening weekend.

The Sisters Rosensweig

By the time this production rolled around, HART actually had time to build sets. This was the production when the community finally witnessed what HART could achieve in their own dedicated space.

Directed by Lloyd Kay and starring Suzanne Tannehill, Katie Gooch and Judy Dybwad as the sisters, this was a beautiful production.

Into the Woods

Into the Woods was the first musical performed in the new performing arts center. It was a very pretty show.

This production featured Suzanne Tinsley, John Stanier, Reta Scribner, Charles Mills and Melodie Galloway.

All of the costumes were hand made and several are still at HART.

An Inspector Calls

This is one of the most creative shows HART has ever produced. The show centers on an upper middle class British family who gets interviewed by an inspector after dinner one evening. Why? A young woman who worked at the family’s factory has committed suicide and the inspector is trying to determine if the family had anything to do with it. Over the course of the show, the audience discovers that everyone had some part to play in driving the young woman to her death.

The stage floor was painted in black and white squares and a large mirror was hung over the stage. When the actors were being interviewed, they were brought to a chair in the center of the stage. From the audience perspective, the actors looked like chess pieces being moved.

The director, Steven Lloyd, did not block the show, but instead allowed the actors to find their natural rhythm.

The Backstage News:

Steven Lloyd hosted the entire cast at his house for a multicourse meal complete with place settings and the works. The entire cast showed up dressed to the nines. It also happened to be the first time one cast member had ever had a sit-down dinner.

As part of the set, there were decanters that were supposed to be brandy, which the actors sip on all night. Steven put sweet tea in one and brandy in the other and gave the actors the option of which one they wanted to drink. He remembered that for about two rehearsals the cast went through a lot of brandy. After that they switched to sweet tea, realizing they would be in a lot of trouble if anyone got drunk on stage during a performance.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

This show provided a nice contrast to Into the Woods because they are so different. Art O’Niel starred as Joseph and Melodie Galloway was the music director.

All the costumes were handmade and they, along with the “Coat of Many Colors”, are still housed at HART.

This was an entertaining show that was performed wonderfully.

Of Mice and Men

The first season marked the first year partnering with The Playhouse Theater in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Because the theaters were of comparable sizes, and Steven Lloyd was friends with the director of The Playhouse Theater, the two theaters were able to trade shows once a year.

Of Mice and Men was the first show HART took on tour down to The Playhouse Theater.

Sadly, the partnership lasted only three years. The Playhouse Theater was destroyed in Hurricane Hugo and was only recently rebuilt.