Judson Theatre Company Anniversary

January 19 was Judson Theatre Company's anniversary. After over a year of careful planning and research, Daniel Haley and I opened JTC's first show back in 2012: LOVE LETTERS with Tab Hunter and Joyce DeWitt.

We're heading for our 22nd mainstage production with BUTTERFLIES ARE FREE in March, our Summer Theatre Festival enters its third year this July, the Education Program we started in Season 5 has grown, and JTC has received its own 501(c)(3) not-for-profit status. Community outreach continues as the Sandhills area changes, and we've won several awards including NC's highest honor for a professional theatre company.

Major thanks, of course to everyone onstage, backstage, in the booth, in the audience, and the friends far and wide who keep us going. We've worked with a lot of wonderful people.

I hope people who have worked at JTC have been able to stay connected with each other beyond their time in the Sandhills, and that they feel like part of our theatre company's extended family. Gratitude to the people who have helped JTC achieve success is the main thing I’m feeling lately.

Here’s the list:

Production History

Season 11

Butterflies are Free – Morgan Fairchild

Gaslight — Maxwell Caulfield

Season 10

JTC Summer Theatre Festival 2023

I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change;

The Year of Magical Thinking -- Linda Purl; The Last Five Years

The Star-Spangled Girl

The Mousetrap - Alison Arngrim (70th Anniversary Production)

Season 9

JTC Summer Theatre Festival 2022 (3 Sandhills area premieres)

 tick, tick...BOOM!; Buyer & Cellar; Gutenberg! The Musical!

Lee Squared: The Liberace & Peggy Lee Comeback Tour

- Chuck Sweeney & David Maiocco

Yes, Virginia (regional premiere) - Mindy Sterling, Arnetia Walker

An Evening on the Lanai: Remembering The Golden Girls (special event)

Little Women (radio)

Angels in the Outfield (radio)

Season 8

Witness for the Prosecution - Alan Campbell

Souvenir - Bob Stillman, Liz McCartney

Yes Virginia (streaming)

An Affair to Remember (radio)

Miracle on 34th Street (radio)

Season 7

Love, Loss, and What I Wore - Sally Struthers, Kim Coles, Joyce Reehling

The Miracle Worker - John James

Season 6

The Sunshine Boys - Robert Wuhl, Don Most

And Then There Were None - Alison Arngrim

Season 5

Twelve Angry Men - John Wesley Shipp

On Golden Pond - John Davidson

launch of Education Program

Season 4

Harvey - Elinor Donahue

Plaza Suite - Eve Plumb, Rex Smith

Season 3

To Kill a Mockingbird - Johnny Whitaker

Steel Magnolias - Teresa Ganzel

Season 2

Bell, Book, and Candle - Mindy Cohn

Driving Miss Daisy - Michael Learned, Lance E. Nichols

Season 1

Tuesdays with Morrie - Jamie Farr

Love Letters - Tab Hunter, Joyce DeWitt

AWARDS and NOMINATIONS

Winner - NC Theatre Conference’s Parides Award for Excellence in Professional Theatre

Winner - 3 BroadwayWorld Awards

5 Best of the Pines nominations

Members of our acting company have won or been nominated for:

23 Emmy Awards, 10 Golden Globe Awards, 3 Tony Awards, 3 TVLand Awards…and more!

Morgan Fairchild in BUTTERFLIES ARE FREE

At Judson Theatre Company we’ve waited a long time to bring you this play, and this star…Morgan Fairchild is probably most visible from television and film—like her recent Lifetime Christmas movie, Ladies of the 80s. But side by side with her work in on camera media is a lengthy and honorable theatre resume.

For several years, we’ve wanted her to do a show at JTC in Pinehurst. As is so often the case, sometimes it takes a little time to get schedules to line up, and to find the right property. It’s worth the wait when it all comes together like this has.

We’re incredibly thrilled that she’ll be playing Mrs. Baker in JTC’s production of Butterflies are Free, Leonard Gershe’s long-running 1969 Broadway comedy hit that was subsequently turned into a successful film. It’s the role that won Eileen Heckart an Academy Award, and it has a lengthy history of being played by first-rate actors, from Ann Sothern to Eve Arden to Gloria Swanson (to name just a few!).

Broadway World and Sandhills Sentinel, among others, have published the news of this casting, and we’ve already had a bunch of press requests…and I figured it wouldn’t hurt to write a few lines about it here.

A great script, a true star—who could ask for more? Get tickets now!

Next: GASLIGHT at Judson Theatre Company

Since I last wrote, a lot has happened, but in the end it came out great! Our next production at Judson Theatre Company will be Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight (Angel Street). I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for thrillers, and particularly for this one, as it was the first show I ever saw at the community theatre where I grew up.

The play’s history has become more interesting in the last decade or so, with the denominalization of the title, turning the word “gaslight” into a verb. Supposedly that usage began in the 1950s, yet it has broadly seeped into the English lexicon since 2010.

Of course for a long time, American theatre audiences knew the play from its Broadway title, Angel Street. But the two film versions (one from Britain, one from MGM) plus the rise of use of “gaslight” seem to have put the original title much more forward in the mind of people today.

There are five choice roles in the play, and we’re pleased that Maxwell Caulfield will be Inspector Rough; Matthew Tyler will return to JTC to play Mr. Manningham; Jennifer Hope will also return to play Elizabeth.

Broadway flyer, with the title change from Gaslight to Angel Street.

The deep-dive on this play never ends, as it seems as virtually every first-class vintage actor (as well as plenty of lesser lights) has done the play somewhere. In America, it was Vincent Price on Broadway; and the MGM film has the star quartet of Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten, and Angela Lansbury. There was a Broadway revival with Dina Merrill. And this incredibly well written 1938 one-set psychological thriller is still being produced by theatres large and small all over the world on a constant basis…including at Judson Theatre Company November 16-19!

Get tickets here.

Broadway revival from 1975 with Dina Merrill and Michael Allinson

Recent UK tour flyer.

3 Sold Out Productions - 2023 Summer Theatre Festival

The response to the second year of Judson Theatre Company’s Summer Theatre Festival was even greater than we had hoped. Once again, we produced six continuous weeks of professional theatre at Bradshaw Performing Arts Center’s intimate McPherson Theater. All three productions enjoyed sold out runs.

I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change kicked off the Festival, July 21-30. Performances were added to accommodate the demand.

The cast of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (Photo credit: DavidNSinclairPhotography.com)

The second show was one that’s been on the list for a while, but we had to wait until we found the right actor. We did! Linda Purl is amazing on the stage and off. Her phenomenal performance in Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking is something to behold and cherish. JTC was most fortunate to be able to bring Ms. Purl to Pinehurst for this show after her triumphant London engagement earlier this year. Though initially we had concerns about the show’s subject matter being too weighty for a summertime audience, the production sold out every performance, with a combination of returnees and new audience members.

Linda Purl in The Year of Magical Thinking (Photo credit: DavidNSinclairPhotography.com)

The festival concluded with Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years in a production starring two JTC returning favorites, Jacob Pressley and Danielle Standifer (her fourth show at JTC in a year!). It’s a show packed with gorgeous music that makes people examine every romantic relationship they’ve ever had. Again, a challenging show (in some ways) for a summer audience, but sold out performances were the order of the day. (August 18-27)

Jacob Pressley and Danielle Standifer in The Last Five Years, with Kevin Wallace (Musical Director). Photo credit: DavidNSinclairPhotography.com

All in all, a wonderful summer, with very special thanks to both the McPhersons and Bradshaw Performing Arts Center. Watch this space for the announcement of next summer’s shows!