Courtesy Photo
The directors for Evergreen Playhouse’s 65th season, from left, Jed Slaughter, Emily Fitzgerald, Danielle Kays, Sarah Amador, Emilie Brown and Tim Donnell pose for a photo outside the Evergreen Playhouse in July.
By Emily Fitzgerald
For the C/C Chamber of Commerce
The Evergreen Playhouse in Centralia opened its 65th season with a mostly sold-out run of “Arsenic and Old Lace,” and tickets are selling quickly for its upcoming holiday production, “A Christmas Story: The Musical.” The show is the directorial debut of Tim Donnell, who joined the Evergreen Playhouse board last year.
“I like putting puzzles together in my head. I love doing schedules at work, like ‘here’s availability, here’s what’s needed, how do I make that work?’ It’s the same thing with putting a play together. ‘Here’s what we want to get to, how do we get there with the tools we have?’” Donnell said. “I like putting those puzzles together, so because my brain operates that way, I thought it would lend itself nicely to directing, and it’s similar to why I wanted to join the board. I just want to continue to grow in all things theater.”
The Evergreen Playhouse is an all-volunteer community theater that “exists to connect and inspire the Southwest Washington community by creating, entertaining and educating through theater arts,” the theater states on its website. It is managed by a volunteer board of directors, which currently has 13 members, though it can be as small as eight or as large as 20.
“We’re all volunteers, so just people that really care about the theater and want them to be successful and want to contribute in whatever way they can,” Donnell said. The board holds monthly meetings where the members discuss ongoing projects and goals, as well as details of the theater’s current show.
Photo by The Chronicle
The cast of the Evergreen Playhouse’s first show of the 65th season, “Arsenic and Old Lace,” pose for a cast photo on stage at the Evergreen Playhouse in October.
Because the community theater is an all-volunteer nonprofit, it relies on donations, sponsors, and advertisers to help cover costs. This season’s sponsor is O’Blarney’s Irish Pub, while other local businesses such as Rectangle Gallery, the Washington Association of Culture and Art, Benjy Howe, Hubbub, Boon ‘N’ Brush, and Bob Holland Insurance are individual show sponsors.
“You can be a show sponsor, you can be a season sponsor … a conversation can be had if you want to sponsor a piece of our production, because we definitely want to work with the community, that’s one of our values, and that’s a partnership we really cherish,” Donnell said.
Anyone who is interested in sponsoring an upcoming show or season at the Evergreen Playhouse, or in learning about other volunteer opportunities to support the theater, is encouraged to reach out to the board of directors via the Evergreen Playhouse website at https://evergreenplayhouse.com/.
Tickets for “A Christmas Story” and other upcoming shows in the 65th season can be purchased through the website. The Evergreen Playhouse is located at 226 West Center Street in Centralia.
