I sincerely hope everyone had a wonderful and peaceful holiday season. I want to thank Chris and Stephanie Dillard for hosting our Pull-Tight Christmas party at their home. Turnout was excellent. It was a delightful time of potluck, photo booth (thank you Jeanne Drone!), games, Christmas carols, ornament exchange, and a loving sendoff for our friend Ron Geagan, who is moving to Boston. Ron has been a valuable member of Pull-Tight and a wonderful friend, and we will sorely miss him.

Audiences thoroughly enjoyed our holiday offering A Christmas Carol: A Live Radio Play directed by JK Gregg. JK directed our previous “live radio show” of It’s a Wonderful Life in 2014 and has a special talent for bringing this type of show to life. The comment I heard most often was how much people enjoyed watching Tom Gregg providing all of the show’s sound effects from the upstage platform. Thank you to the entire cast and crew for a wonderful show and a great way to enjoy the season.

Thanks also to Claudia Finnegan for decorating the theatre inside and out with Christmas décor in keeping with the historic nature of our building and the 1940’s-based show.

Director Heather Bottoms and her cast and crew have been hard at work since December getting ready to bring us the heartwarming show On Golden Pond opening January 25. Tickets go on sale January 14 and they will go fast, so make sure to get them. Watch an interview with actor Greg Grimsley about returning to Pull-Tight after more than 30 years to do the show.

We will be transitioning to a new electronic tablet system for checking in patrons at the door, as spearheaded by Box Office Chair Johnny Peppers.  Door workers will be trained and the new system will be launched with On Golden Pond. The new system offers several advantages, and we think everyone will enjoy using it.

Don’t forget to take advantage of the opportunity to become a Pull-Tight Special Patron and receive a copy of our documentary.

The best possible way to beat the winter doldrums is to spend a summer on the water in Maine, so I hope to see you soon On Golden Pond!

Pat Street, President
Pull-Tight Board of Directors

Read previous blog posts:

November 2018
September 2018
July 2018

Pull-Tight’s 50th Anniversary celebration continues with the roll-out on December 1 of the opportunity to become a “Pull-Tight Special Patron” and receive commemorative gifts as our thanks for your support during our golden year. The roll-out comes just in time for Christmas, and these items will make wonderful presents for anyone interested in our theatre.

Among those items is a copy of our documentary, Pull-Tight Players: 50 Years a Treasure by filmmaker Tom Gregg. This film premiered at our 50th Anniversary Open House in July, and the opportunity to obtain copies has been eagerly awaited. Also included on the DVD are 28 oral history interviews with Pull-Tight members sharing their own reminiscences of Pull-Tight’s past.

Other gift items will include 50th Anniversary window stickers and decals. Patrons will also have the opportunity to order t-shirts separately. All of these items have been requested by our membership, so we are very excited to get this promotion up and running.

Many thanks to Director Daryle Tallent and her cast and crew for bringing us Lend Me a Tenor in October. It was a high-energy, hilarious show expertly brought to life by her team, and audiences thoroughly enjoyed it.

Director JK Gregg and her cast and crew are currently putting the finishing touches on A Christmas Carol: Live Radio Play, a different twist on the beloved Dickens classic. This show is sure to sell out fast, so make sure to get your tickets.

Our Youth Guild had the opportunity this fall to appear in an electric company commercial. It was a truly unique learning experience. Thanks to Peggy Macpherson for coordinating the event, and to Pull-Tight youth Elena Hall, Nolan Wilson, Jolon Watson, Jake Rybczyk, Maddie Logan, Raymond Cruz, Esme Watson, Justin Tholen, and Alec Tassey for participating.

We had a wonderful occasion of fellowship and business at our Artist Membership Meeting in October at the home of Beth and Woody Woodruff, with good attendance despite some pretty awful weather. As a community outreach, Beth and Woody drove over to the local firehouse immediately afterwards and brought the firemen the leftovers from the feast.

Make plans now to attend our Pull-Tight Christmas Party on December 16.

Thank you to all who support our theatre, and I wish you joy, warmth, safety, and love this holiday season.

Pat Street, President
Pull-Tight Board of Directors

Read previous blog posts:
September 2018
July 2018

Fall has thus far been a somber time for the Pull-Tight family, with the separate losses of Wesley Fox and John Emberton, both long-time and beloved Pull-Tight artist members. Wesley and John participated in the oral history interviews for our 50th Anniversary Celebration, so we are grateful to have been able to preserve their memories and inspiring words about what Pull-Tight meant in their lives. Check out a new feature on the website, an In Memoriam Page honoring our members who have passed.

The 50 Anniversary Celebration was a resounding success, with over 200 in attendance. Special thanks to Lynda Gibbs, Ricki Keckley, Steve and Pat Evans, and their committee members for all of the logistics that went into this event, as well as Laura Sparkman and Wesley Fox for gorgeous floral arrangements. Huge thanks also to Tom Gregg and his team for our outstanding documentary, 50 Years a Treasure. Remember that this is a year-long celebration. Watch the website for the opportunity to obtain a DVD of the film and our oral history interviews, as well as some 50th Anniversary memorabilia, with all proceeds donated to the theatre.

Our season opener, South Pacific, was a blockbuster success in every way, selling out the original run as well as two holdover shows. Audiences were thrilled to see this beloved classic, in many cases bringing their children and grandchildren to experience it for the first time. See a wonderful review in the Williamson Herald.

Many thanks to Director Iain Macpherson and his cast and crew, not only for the wonderful show, but for the willingness of the cast to perform numbers from the show three separate times for the 50th Anniversary and to participate in a workshop for the Junior Youth Actors Guild after the show closed. As Producer of this show, I want to say that this was one of the most congenial groups of cast and crew I have ever worked with.

Director Daryle Tallent and her cast and production team have been working hard these last several weeks to bring us something I think we all need right now, the uproariously funny Lend Me a Tenor. You are not going to want to miss this one.

In typical Pull-Tight fashion, people working behind the scenes have gone above and beyond. Iain Macpherson removed all the chairs and painted the risers for the 50th Anniversary event and season opener. Chris Dillard replaced the stage camera after the original was apparently fried by a lightning strike. Steven Steele came in to do a tech inventory and make recommendations for updates. Mike Foster stopped to repair the paint room door and the cast bathroom toilet in the midst of serving as Set Crew Chief for Lend Me a Tenor.

Not all of the jobs at Pull-Tight are glamorous, but every one of them makes us the strong and thriving organization that we are, and we appreciate you each and every one.

Pat Street, President
Pull-Tight Board of Directors

How excited are people about our 50th Anniversary Year? If we can judge by season ticket sales, pretty excited! We recently closed sales with a record number of 585 purchased. Meanwhile, several large groups are queued up to purchase tickets for South Pacific the minute they go on sale. So I would say yes, people are excited about our 50th Season. And all this activity also reflects the hard work of our lively Social Media Committee and Box Office, both headed by Johnny Peppers.

Director Iain Macpherson and his cast and crew have been working for weeks to ensure that the beloved classic South Pacific will exceed expectations, and rehearsals have been thrilling to watch. Needless to say, get your tickets early!

We hope everyone will join us at our Open House on Sunday, July 29, which begins a season-long celebration of Pull-Tight’s 50 years of providing top-notch entertainment to the community. You will not want to miss the premiere of our documentary, Pull-Tight Players: 50 Years a Treasure, by filmmaker Tom Gregg, along with a few numbers from the cast of South Pacific.

It is truly a great honor to serve as President during this 50th Anniversary year. It is an exciting time for Pull-Tight as we commemorate the past and look toward the future health of the organization.

A special thanks to Lynda Gibbs, outgoing Pull-Tight President, for her two years of strong and gracious leadership, and to our various committee members who have agreed to continue in their positions for another year.  Once again I am deeply impressed and grateful for all of the talented and dedicated volunteers who keep this group running smoothly.

Throughout the year, please let me know your concerns and goals for Pull-Tight, and especially let me know how you are willing to help achieve them!  I look forward to working with you.

Pat Street
President, Pull-Tight Players Board of Directors
patintn@aol.com

“When all you care about is here, this is a good place to be.”  – Emile de Becque in South Pacific.