Smithfield little theatre movie#

Shows are selected from proposals submitted by local directors.

'In recent years, we've added a Christmas show each December and a summer youth production- which is an extended youth drama camp.' 'Through all these years, we've produced three shows annually- two musicals and a play,' Mark continues. The beautiful, red-brick, Colonial Revival-style theatre now stands at the entrance to Smithfield Food's executive office complex, flanked by Church Street on one side and the Pagan River on the other.

In summer 2001, our new theatre was completed.' They offered to build us a new facility on their campus if we would sell them the property on which the old cotton gin stood. In 2000, Smithfield Foods decided to base their corporate headquarters here in town. In 1973, the Gwaltneys gave us the building, and for the next 25 years, we continually made improvements to the facility. Our dedicated players rolled up their sleeves, jumped in and renovated the place. Howard Gwaltney, Sr.- offered to lease us an old cotton gin near the town's waterfront for only one dollar a year. 'Until 1966, our shows were presented in the old Smithfield High School auditorium. 'The theatre was founded in 1962 by a hardy band of players who just loved performing,' past theatre president, Mark Hall, recalls. The NLT will require audience members to wear masks.The Smithfield Little Theatre is about to have a birthday, and at age 56, it's looking better than ever.

For reservations, call 91 and leave a message. Tickets are $13 in advance and $15 at the door. The Neuse Little Theatre will stage “The Outsiders” at 8 p.m. “So instead of the message being ‘life sucks,’ the message will go to ‘life sucks if you let it.’ ” Pender hopes audiences and cast members alike will see the positive themes in “The Outsiders.” “At the end, hopefully, the whole idea is to see how much we can share that hope,” he said. Pender called the cast “a really good mix of veterans and newbies.” “It’s nice seeing them interact,” he said. “I am excited to see, after the play, who gets talked to the most other than Johnnycakes and Ponyboy,” she said. “I have done school plays, but this is my first outside of school,” she said.ĭonovan said she was interested to see which characters prove most popular with audiences.

Smithfield little theatre movie#

“And then I watched the movie and I fell in love with it.”Ĭastmate Hope Donovan will be making her community theater debut. “I read the book in school since it was required in sixth grade, and so I got really attached to the story,” she said. “So I have never been on stage.”īut Vaughn is no stranger to “The Outsiders.” “I was going to be in the production at my school of ‘Matilda,’ but it got canceled because of COVID,” she said. Summer Vaughn, who plays Johnnycakes, will make her stage debut in “The Outsiders.” “I really wanted the kids to be able to connect with it as visually as they could.” “The coming-of-age thing is the same,” Pender said. It became a movie in 1983 and a play in 1990. It’s also a coming-of-age tale that Pender has brought into the present day. “It’s really about kids who are looking for their own tribe,” he added. “It’s about him growing up and trying to find his place in the world.” “The whole thing is told from Ponyboy’s point of view,” Pender said. The central character is a 14-year-old Greaser, Ponyboy Curtis, an outsider struggling with right and wrong in society. The Greasers are the working-class kids who are no strangers to violence the Socs are upper-class and popular. “The Outsiders” depicts the conflict between two youth gangs divided by socioeconomic status. “The other thing is that kids, no matter where they are, are dealing with so much real violence and I thought it would be cheap to turn it into something cutesy.” “There are literally millions of young people today who are homeless,” said Tony Pender, the show’s director and an NLT veteran. SMITHFIELD - For its production of “The Outsiders,” a tale of rival gangs, the Neuse Little Theatre isn’t tamping down the drama’s darker themes, including violence, death and homelessness.