The story below is from our September/October 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Roanoke’s theatre scene thrives thanks to dedicated individuals and organizations providing rich opportunities for local talent to shine.
Courtesy of Showtimers Community Theatre
The cast of ‘The Women’ at Showtimers Community Theatre rehearse in advance of the opening of the 2023 show.
It’s hard to argue that a city has a thriving local arts scene if it doesn’t have a robust theatre community. Luckily for Roanoke, there are several organizations and numerous dedicated individuals who make up Roanoke’s theatre community.
Some of the stages’ local performers can be found performing on include Showtimers Community Theatre, Mill Mountain Theatre and Virginia Children’s Theatre.
Showtimers Community Theatre on Mcvitty Road in SW Roanoke stages five shows a year.
“We try to do a good mix of musicals, comedies, dramas to make sure we’re doing a lot of different things that will appeal to a wider audience,” Jamie Stewart, media and design chair, explains.
Roughly 55 actors, including Stewart and Kayla Lees, performed on the Showtimers stage last year.
Stewart, a college admissions manager, has been involved in Showtimers since she relocated to the area from New Orleans in 2018. For her first show, she undertook costuming and stage management duties.
Immediately immersing herself in the Showtimers community was a natural move considering she’s long been involved in theatre, having performed in shows in her hometown and majored in it in college.
“It’s a really welcoming community. I don’t think a lot of people realize that’s what it is—it isn’t a closed off community. If you want to help, if you’re willing to show up, we want you here,” she stresses.
Courtesy of Lindsay Toler
The cast of the Virginia Children’s Theatre production of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ included Cindy Blevins, from left, as Mrs. Potts, John Beres as Cogsworth and Ann Marie Thorell as Lumiere.
Recently, the theatre has expanded its educational outreach, which is mainly aimed at adults who are interested in the theatre and want to learn more about it. One of the offerings was an auditioning workshop that taught participants how to prepare audition materials and what to wear.
“It was super successful. It really drew a lot of people in and then those people actually did come out, audition and get cast,” she says. Two of the participants were even cast as the leads of a show despite only having high school show credits on their resumes.
Unlike professional theatre where each person has their own lane, community theatre, Stewart explains, lends itself to being well-rounded. Those who are involved in it can assume any number of roles within the performing/directing, technical and administrative domains. Showtimers has a group of around 20 individuals who fulfill crew duties.
Courtesy of Mill Mountain Theatre
McGullion as Bob Ewell in "To Kill A Mockingbird."
Throughout the years, Stewart has performed in six shows, directed two shows and assisted with countless other shows at Showtimers. Her most recent turn at directing was “Radium Girls” in May.
Lees, a Christiansburg resident, first joined the theatre in 2013. She’s both an actor and stage manager. Her passion for performing manifested itself first, but she later developed an interest in stage management once she realized she liked making lists and organizing things, as well as helping directors bring their dreams to fruition.
“The community is so welcoming. I drive here every week just to be a part of it because we don’t have anything like it in Christiansburg and Blacksburg,” she explains.
Performing, she says, gives her an opportunity to tell audiences a good story and give them a break from life. She got her first taste of the power of theatre when she was in her high school’s production of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.” It opened right around the same time that the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting happened, taking the life of the father of one of her close friends. “We convinced him to come see it. He said it was the first time he smiled since his dad died. After that, me and my friends were like this is it. This feels right,” she says.
Both Stewart and Lees performed in “The Iliad, The Odyssey, and All of Greek Mythology in 99 Minutes or Less” at Showtimers in March.
Although Mill Mountain Theatre on Market Square in SE Roanoke is a professional regional theatre that regularly employs Equity actors, it uses a considerable number of local performers as well.
In fact, the theatre wouldn’t be able to stage a season without tapping into local talent, according to Ginger Poole, the theatre’s producing artistic director. “Our theatre community is really rich here in Roanoke,” she stresses.
Local performers are cast the same way as out-of-town professionals, with multiple audition sessions peppered throughout the year. They can either come in-person or tape themselves and send in their audition. Roughly four to six local performers are in each of the 10 shows the theatre produces each year.
Once they’re cast, the theatre regularly works with local performers to accommodate their work and school schedules. If a show has a particularly large number of local performers in it, the theatre will shift the rehearsals from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. to 4-10 p.m.
Jeffrey McGullion is an example of a Roanoke actor who appears regularly on the Mill Mountain stage.
Courtesy of Mill Mountain Theatre
Jeffrey McGullion, right, played Felix in ‘The Odd Couple’ at Mill Mountain Theatre in 2016.
“It’s something I’ve been around my entire life,” McGullion says of the theatre. His father is an actor, writer and director. It wasn’t until his sophomore year of high school that he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps when he auditioned for his first show and was cast. From there, he received a theatre degree from the University of Georgia.
“It’s something that’s in you. To a degree, you’re born with the inclination. I need the outlet,” McGullion says of his desire to perform. “When you’ve been in a really good production and think I did my job tonight and then comes curtain call and you hear that applause from the audience, that’s something you can’t hardly pay for.”
Since settling in the Roanoke Valley 35 years ago, he’s pursued performance opportunities at a range of venues while still balancing the demands of a day job in customer service.
“It’s a challenge because it can become exhausting, but I’ve found it’s what I want to do. However my day has been, once it’s time to go pull the curtain and turn on the lights, I kick it into gear, the energy is there and I’m ready to go,” he explains.
He typically performs in one to five shows a year, including three shows in 2023. He was in all of Mill Mountain’s Trinkle Mainstage shows in 2023. His most recent performance there was as Walter in “Elf,” which he describes as a “great experience” because of how deeply the character was developed.
Courtesy of Lindsay Toler
Cindy Blevins as Mrs. Potts in "Beauty and the Beast."
McGullion views his work in musicals as being serendipitous considering that he didn’t start getting cast in them until the second half of his career. “Straight plays, then all of the sudden musicals just started coming. It was like OK, this is a good chapter,” he says.
Cindy Blevins is another Christiansburg-based performer and musician who regularly appears on Roanoke Valley stages. She got her start in middle school when she took a theatre elective and “fell in love with it.” Throughout high school, she performed in several musicals. Despite wanting to major in theatre in college, she was persuaded to study something else by her father.
“After I graduated college, I decided it doesn’t matter if I’m doing this for a living or not. I can still do it,” she says. While balancing her career as a counselor, she continued to pursue various performing opportunities.
Once she moved to the New River Valley, she plugged herself into the local theatre community, including at Virginia Children’s Theatre in Roanoke where she most recently appeared as Mrs. Potts in “Beauty and the Beast” and Mill Mountain Theatre where she most recently played the piano for “Elf.”
On average, she’s involved in two to three shows a year. She anticipates returning to both theatres soon, including as musical director for “Annie” at Mill Mountain in November and December.
“I love Mill Mountain. It has one of those magical theatre atmospheres. It’s kind of a family atmosphere,” she says.
It’s that sense of family and the fact that it brings people together that she keeps returning to the theatre. “There’s no people like show people. That’s an Ethel Merman song. I think it’s true. I just love being around those people. We just get each other,” she stresses.
The story above is from our September/October 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!