This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in Images for February 12, 2022, East Bernard Express, East Bernard, TX.
Beginning my career as an educator, teaching speech and drama, along with some English classes, and directing plays, I was convinced that cinema was inferior to “legitimate” theatre as we used to call “live” theatre in the old days. And I worked briefly with a community theatre, once playing Charles in Blythe Spirit.
In those days, I was an avid supporter of the Alley Theatre, which started out in a fan factory. We looked upon the Alley as a community theatre, and over the years, I came to know and like quite a few small “community” theatres, one that I liked starting out in an old bank building, and others in converted movie theatres.
The Plaza Theatre in Wharton is one of the cinema-to-live conversions, but when I moved to Wharton in 1966, it was still a movie theatre; it became a live theatre in 1995, after I moved away from Wharton. According to a Wharton historian, the Plaza Theatre began as the two-story Plaza Hotel in 1904. It became a movie theatre in 1942, with a triple screen in 1974. As a live theatre fan, I rarely went to movies in those days.
Although I now live in East Bernard, and am essentially a shut-in, I do try to keep up with the growth and development and excitement about the now live Plaza. My wife and her East Bernard friends have attended performances quite frequently, and Peggy shares what she sees with me. I left working in live theatre quite a few years ago, but even though you leave the theatre, it doesn’t leave your heart.
With opening night held on February 4, Blythe Spirit, the current Plaza Theatre production, is directed by Mark Szafarz. Theatre goers can still see the Noel Coward play on Friday, February 11, at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, February 12, at 7;30 p.m., and Sunday, February 13, at 2:30 p.m. Admission is $15 or by season tickets.
The plot of the play is basically this: Charles Condomine, now remarried, encounters the ghost of his first wife, Elvira, who is conjured up by Madame Arcati, a “happy Medium.”
The Cast includes Reagan Wrench as Charles Condomine, Quinn Wrench as Ruth Condomine, Darin Mielke as Dr. Bradman, Jacqueline Kana as Mrs. Bradman, Joanna Hickey as Madame Arcadi, Jami Hughes as Elvira, and Madeline Beyer as Edith.
If I could attend a performance, I would! If you can, you will enjoy a night of live theatre!
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Ray Spitzenberger is a retired WCJC teacher, a retired LCMS pastor, and author of three books, It Must Be the Noodles, Open Prairies, and Tanka Schoen.