PineStraw Magazine on JSTF 2024 and more...

Conventional theatre wisdom is that it’s during year three of a venture when you really know if your work is taking hold…and it’s true.

The third year of Judson Theatre Company’s Summer Theatre Festival is selling well, attracting more groups than ever, and we’re so pleased and humbled by the Sandhills area’s embrace of the concept and the programming of the festival…and of course, the support.

Two of the best ways to show support for a not-for-profit theatre company like Judson are a) show up (and bring friends) and b) donate.

This feature by Jenna Biter in PineStraw captures the essence of the Summer Theatre Festival perfectly. Join us for They’re Playing Our Song, Mrs. Mannerly, and Tell Me on a Sunday. Click here for tickets.

JTC Summer Theatre Festival 2024: Year 3 is here!

In the blink of an eye, Judson Theatre Company’s Summer Theatre Festival is about to enter its third year. It feels like we started the festival just yesterday. This season was actually easy to program: with two seasons behind us, Artistic Director Daniel Haley and I know better than ever exactly what we want the mix of shows each season to be. Daniel and I were excited about the same short list of shows, and then all we had to do was pick three and put them in order.

We’ll open with They’re Playing Our Song. It’s the Neil Simon-Marvin Hamlisch-Carol Bayer Sager smash hit that has been making audiences happy since it began its long Broadway run in 1979. It runs July 19-28 in Bradshaw Performing Arts Center’s McPherson Theater. Click here for tickets.

Linda Purl (The Office, Happy Days, Matlock) returns to JTC in the second show Jeffrey Hatcher’s delicious comedy Mrs. Mannerly, also starring Jordan Ahnquist (Shear Madness). It’s about a small-town etiquette teacher with a past and a young student whose life she changes for the better. It runs August 2-11. Click here for tickets.

The festival will conclude with JTC’s first Andrew Lloyd Webber show, Tell Me on a Sunday, an intimate, lovely musical about an English girl who moves to New York to make her way in the world. It runs August 16-25. Click here for tickets.

All in all, it’s definitely a summer to look forward to—join us: JudsonTheatre.com

BUTTERFLIES ARE FREE triumphs at Judson Theatre Company

What a happy time we had doing Butterflies are Free at Judson Theatre Company, March 7-10, 2024. After a while, you do a lot of shows, and your first wish when the next one comes along is twofold: a great script and a talented, professional, hardworking cast…everything else will usually work out if you have that. And we did, led by Morgan Fairchild. She brought heart, elegance, and impeccable timing to the role of Florence Baker. And she’s a complete delight to work with—the total professional.

I’d known Stephen Shore for years, but this was the first time the stars aligned for us to work together. He anchored the show with an excellent leading-man performance as Don Baker that made you really care about what happened to him, without losing any of the comedy. Talented, hardworking, prepared, professional—the kind of actor who is a pleasure to direct. Morgan-Ellene Davis captured all of Jill Tanner’s qualities. The role is a tricky mix of heart and humor and quirkiness, and her beautiful light shone through every scene she was in. Cedric Gegel played Ralph Austin and he, too, knew just what to do with a role that doesn’t have a ton of stage time but still has to make an impression and be fleshed out with a detailed characterization.

From the outset, I had resisted directing on JTC’s mainstage—being Executive Producer is a full-time job when we are in production. When I’m directing at other theatres, all I have to do is direct the play. Nonetheless, I agreed to direct Butterflies are Free because I knew the playwright, Leonard Gershe. It was a personal dream come true to honor his memory with this production and to see the play work like gangbusters (it always has).

I’ll always be grateful to everyone who worked on Butterflies are Free for collaborating on an excellent production and some wonderful memories. Thank you to everyone who took the time to see it.

Morgan Fairchild as Florence Baker and Stephen Shore as Don Baker in Judson Theatre Company’s Butterflies are Free (photo: David Sinclair Photography)

Morgan-Ellene Davis as Jill Tanner and Stephen Shore as Don Baker in Judson Theatre Company’s Butterflies are Free (photo: David Sinclair Photography)

Cedric Gegel as Ralph Austin and Morgan-Ellene Davis as Jill Tanner in Butterflies are Free at Judson Theatre Company (photo: David Sinclair Photography)

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!