Transcription
Vern: Hi, this is Vern Hall back again. So, back in high school again. Oh, I discovered that theater was there, and I was in their junior play. In their senior play. And then it was after the service and years of doing other things and being in business and all of that. And then Roger passed away, and I had things to do with my time, you know. So, the theater project popped along and, Dennis, our local person, God rest him, he’s passed away about a couple of years ago now. Sorry to lose him. He was quite an inspiration. But Dennis, went to Saint Paul’s Lutheran, and I was, of course, a deacon there at the time, you know, in the choir and all of that with singing. And he says, you know, it’d be kind of nice to put on a little like radio variety type show here on the church stage, because it’s the only stage in Richmondville outside of the High School.
So, we did a couple of programs there. And anyhow, Dennis met up with Cherie Stevens from the college, and Cherie had worked with theater for years in the college with the, you know, with the college students. And they got together and they formed the theater project at Schoharie County. And we oh, I guess I can’t forget, too. Catherine was a part of that deal as well. Catherine is our local, trans person, and I had met Catherine several years ago because she was good friends with my next-door neighbor, and he had stopped by one day, and we had had a great chat. And, and wooden hmhm on wooden benches was the first show, and I just ran the lights from up in the balcony. That time we did it at the, Golding High School. And then the actual my first role was actually in You Can’t Take It With You. And I played my part in that role, and we had another, a couple of other gay people in the theater, and that was kind of nice. And we’ve become friends over the years, and we’ve did a lot more plays.
We were doing on an average of about for a year. Plus, we would do a radio show type presentation. And so over those, it’s been 13 years now. I’ve actually appeared in 34 plays and it’s been fun. And the nicest part about it in a theater atmosphere, gay people are expected to be there. And they and sometimes their parents are there as well. And so and it’s working with various types of people, the diversity of people within the theater who come to the theater. And sometimes they’re there because, well, their kids were in this play and they got dragged into it. And here they are four plays later and they’re doing it too. And so there’s a good friendship with and camaraderie within that group. And that’s where we work with the arts. And I’ve become heavily involved with what is happening with Zion Lutheran Church. Since it’s double fliers, there’s two of us locally who are on the panel to see the dissolution. And what we’re looking at is we have a buyer now who wants to turn it into a gathering place, another gathering place, a community center, a place for theater to be performed for musicians to come in. It’s like we have so many, many musicians in our county that where they need to go and make appearances, because in order to make music, you got to continue to make music. You just can’t sit by. And so that would be kind of nice. And of course, with a full kitchen below you have it, you can feed the hungry. And of course you could put artwork along the walls in the restored part of the church, have the plays, have musical concerts, perform Handel’s Messiah once again, and that’s what we’re doing in the arts. We’re keeping it alive, not letting it die because we all come and go. And as some of us older ones go, there’s younger ones coming along and getting just as much of a thrill from the theater. Come on down.