Piedmont Players is home. The group has rehearsed in many different
places over time, but when you’re in rehearsal, building or striking
the set, or getting ready for the show, you’re at home. And when you’re
on your way to rehearsal — you’re on your way home. It may not always
feel that way at every given moment, but you really are.
Piedmont Players is family. I don’t necessarily mean the family you
share a house with, or your blood relations. I mean the family with
whom you share the failures, the successes, the fears, the pain, the
laughs and the joy that come with working on a show — on-stage or
off-stage.
It’s just like a family of sorts, because some family members you
immediately connect with, and others, well … ya just don’t. But you
still work together for a common purpose — and it usually pays off in
the end.
Piedmont Players is community. As I understand it, the early shows were
done at Knox Junior High School (or middle school, now I think). What a
journey from then to now. There are lots of people who helped formed
the organization (including my father), but there are a great many more
who have kept it alive and now thriving.
My son and I were visiting recently and attended the youth presentation
of “A Comedy of Errors” at the new Norvell Theatre. I’m not sure who was
more thrilled in our trio who saw it — my mother who just beamed that
her community had this new “second” stage in town; her grandson, who was
able to follow actors about the same age as himself speaking
Shakespeare; or myself, who was so impressed that my home town was host
to a community of generous, caring people dedicated to make such a
beautiful space possible and to make such a fun event happen.
There are a great many factors that have helped shape me and my view of
the world, and Piedmont Players was one of them — for the better to be
sure. And I’ve no doubt the same remains true for many others. Piedmont
Players informed me broadly in the early steps of my path. It gave me
an outlet when I was a bit precocious in my adolescence. It provided
a foundation for me and a place to be accepted when I was such an ugly,
awkward, clumsy, goofy dweeb of a kid (and I was all of those, believe
me). It kept me out of trouble when I was briefly a rebellious teen.
And it elevated me to understand why my parents stayed involved in their
community for so many years.
I mentioned before that Piedmont Players is family. Like so many, I
hold many fond memories of those who have been a part of the group.
Though I don’t see many of them as often as I’d like when I get back in
town on occasion — and some have now passed away — I think of them
often. A few of them remain some of my dearest friends to this day and
they remain close with my wife and son.
I’m lucky enough to be a working actor and theatre producer thus far in
my life, but who would’ve thought that in its first 50 years, so many
individuals would have gone on to such success in their lives —
particularly so many in the performing arts and other avenues. When you
think of all of the college students who participated with the group who
have gone on to great performing careers (or the like), along with all
of the community members (young and old) who have tread the boards,
worked the lights, or sold the tickets, who have also enjoyed such
success in so many ways — it’s pretty remarkable, if not inevitable.
Most of all though, Piedmont Players reminds me of why so many
communities have a local theatre group. Because it’s needed — because
it’s essential. It’s part of how a community defines itself. When people
ask where I’m from, I tell them about this idyllic place I grew up in
called Salisbury. Sure the town and the county have issues to confront —
that’s true everywhere. But as I describe the place to them, in the
back of my mind I’m reminded how lucky I was to grow up where I did —
and how I did. I’m trying to make sure my son has access to similar
experiences. And as I continue my stories about my home town to those
who ask, I am also reminded of how lucky Salisbury is to have Piedmont
Players.
You really can’t make this stuff up. Lucky indeed.
http://www.ebzb.org
