Good morning. This is the Blains World Podcast. Good morning to you too, Susan. Where conversations are worth having and um hearing and seeing. You can watch the um video on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. You can always listen in on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. And for more information and past episodes, you can check my website, which is behind me, blanksworld.net. I'm your host, Blaine Greenfield, coming to you from my Zoom studio in lovely downtown Fairview, North Carolina. And each week we focus on positive news and uploading stories at people and organizations in Western North Carolina and across the country. And towards that end, it's my pleasure to introduce Susan Poker, president of the Trion Little Theater, being my guest today. And Susan, you can feel free to wave to all your fans and friends who are watching this. Yay! Hello, everyone. Okay, and that is Susan. And Susan, um, as you mentioned, is president of the 70-year-old Trion Little Theater in Trion, North Carolina. She has loved living in the area for almost 30 years with her husband, Kelly Coker, a horse trainer. She adores Pierre Theater and being part of such an outstanding company. And um, what I always do, Susan, the first time I speak with somebody, is ask, uh, as a kid, you grew up where? I grew up outside, well, I was born outside of Chicago, but I spent most of my formative years in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was called Upper St. Clair. Okay, and growing up outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, did you know you always wanted to be a president of a community theater? Was that your goal? I did not think about being a president, but I definitely wanted to be in shows, and I did a lot of shows in high school as well. So it's been something that I've loved to do since I was a kid. Well, I may ask you then. So you did shows in high school. Do you remember the very first show you ever did? I did The Boyfriend, which was wonderful. I played Maisie, and we got to do wonderful singing and dancing. And I had we had a very talented high school, so I had auditioned for several shows my freshman and sophomore year, but my junior year, I got into the boyfriend, and it just launched a lifelong love of theater. Now, had you done any acting before then? I had done some. My mom was a big fan, and my parents took us to plays when they could. Um, I lived in Kansas City when I was very small, and they used to have outdoor community or outdoor theater. So I think the very first thing I saw where I just was knocked out was uh I saw an outdoor version of the King and I. And I just remember I was mesmerized. My mother said I just stood up the whole time. It was one of those things where you sat on blankets and out in a in a in a in a you know beautiful theatrical uh place. So so that was kind of fun. And um, so I just uh I just loved it after that. Did you ever get to be in King and I? I did not. I was never in that show, but it was the first thing that I knew this was magical and I needed to do it for the rest of my life. Well, keep in mind we should try to do that at Tryon sometime. Wouldn't that be on one of the great shows? So you acted then that started you, and then you acted all throughout high school. Did you continue acting? I went to Penn State and I was actually a theater major for one year. Um, I was in a version of God's spell. I was a dancer and in the ensemble, and it was really, really fun. But I ended up not staying with the theater department. I went into speech communications broadcast. Uh, a little something that you probably would like a lot. So that was that was very fun. So when you did that though, were you still acting at at Penn? Um not really in in college. I didn't do anything after that show. Um, but I did after um after I graduated, we had a community theater in State College, Pennsylvania. It was it was in it was called the Bowl Barn, and I did several productions there. A little night music and a few other things, yes. So what's cool then is so that you did afterward. Then did you take a pause or delay for some and get back into it? Or you were out of the house. Yes, you know, life life happens, children and marriage and all that stuff. And then uh my husband and I moved to Bluebell, Pennsylvania. I mentioned that he's a horse trainer, and um, so I always loved singing and acting, and so I auditioned for our local uh theater group right there um in in Philadelphia. So we had a few shows there and got to do that, and um, so I've just everywhere we've lived, I've kind of when I had time, I I did that. So what you did try on? So my husband, we had a very bad winter one year in Philadelphia. There was a blizzard, and we thought this is this is really hard. There were frozen water buckets and frozen pipes, and we couldn't get the horses out. So we had talked about moving south. And my husband had gone to horse shows in the Tryon, North Carolina area. Not only is it very rich in the arts, but it's also a big equestrian um sporting destination. So we went down and we found a farm to lease, and the rest is history. And um, I was actually racing. There was an amateur steeplechase race, and I was riding a horse named Atticus Finch, and Trium Little Theater was doing um, oh my gosh, what is the uh to kill a mockingbird, of course. So I ran into the building and I said, Hi, I have a horse named Atticus Finch. And the director who later directed me in Steel Magnolias, she was adorable. And she said, Oh, that's so interesting. Come on in and meet everybody, and they were just so wonderful. But they must have thought, who is this wild woman coming in here talking about her horse? But um, I became involved with TLT very shortly after that. And that was a while ago, right? Yes, that was back like I think the last when I rode out because it was 2005, and I think I got involved with TLT 2008. Okay, so you've been involved ever since? Yes, this is my third time as a president. Third time's a charm, Blaine. So over the years, I I've been secretary and uh president three times. Well, give you credit. I mean, that's amazing. It must be like glutton for punishment, you know, that I was one time, but that was enough. Yeah, it's it's just such a great group. And um, you know, we all help each other. So even if you don't really want to be president, everybody's like, oh, we'll help you, and they sure do. We just have a very hardworking board and everybody's incredible. I just want to give a shout out to my executive committee. I have Mark Sawyer, who is vice president, but he was president for three and a half years right after COVID. So he really has done some amazing things. And he actually spearheaded us buying our building. We had been kind of nomads for 78 years, 76 years. And in March of 2024, we actually bought the current workshop that we have uh that we have been in for quite some time. And then Mark's wife, Deborah, she had volunteered to do our books a few years back. And you know how that goes? You just say, hey, why don't you come on and be our treasurer? And she is a full-time job, as many people do, and on our board and our volunteer base. And uh, she's a wonderful treasurer. And then Scott Waddell is our secretary, and uh, he's been a good friend, and he's very uh he was very, very um busy at the Spartanburg Little Theater where I met him and some shows that I did. And Blaine, one thing about the upstate of South Carolina and North Carolina, we all we all help each other. Like Spartanburg Little Theater will, you know, ask us to borrow some costumes, or they'll help us with some costumes. And we trade actors and we have directors from South Carolina and North Carolina, and we have actors that come as far away as like an hour and a half every single night for six weeks to rehearse and do the show. So it's it's pretty cool. Well, the interesting thing about some of the names you mentioned, I know Mark also acts in some of the shows, but he sure does. As a matter of fact, I think you saw Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Yeah. So half of our board of directors, we only have 10, half of them were in the show. So it was quite something during that time because we always the board does a big opening night reception. And of course, there's many duties. As I said, the Tri and Little Theater Board, we roll up our sleeves and we work really hard. So just uh we have a lot of actors and a lot of just theater lovers and and uh business people that love theater and are very uh very loyal to Try and Little Theater. So one of the cool things about what you do too is the fact that I know that the location we are in, but that's a small location. That has how many seats? Only 72 right now. And um I I mentioned to you uh in several conversations, we just launched our, we call it the TLT Home Suite Home Refurbishment Campaign. And since we just purchased our building in March of 2024, of course, now we have a big undertaking to really upgrade our current facility, and that includes all sorts of things. Um, first and foremost, we're going to have a separate building that will house our set shop or our, you know, where we construct all the sets. Because currently the set volunteers who are amazing, they come in on Tuesday mornings and any other time that they're needed. But of course, we rehearse in the space and we do the show in the space as well. So that's a big, big part of our um refurbishment campaign. And we've already raised some funds. And um, I am also a grant writer, which is one thing that I love to do for the theater, and we work very, very closely with several foundations. The Polk County Community Foundation has been just incredible to the Try and Little Theater. They have um, I have written grants for different shows, for equipment, for the risers, for microphones, things like that. And we are currently um working with the Canon Foundation for um a construction grant for that building. So I know we'll get into that a little bit more, but I just wanted to share that. Well, also talk about the fact that what makes you folks kind of really cool, I think, is the fact that you have the theater, but then you do some productions at another facility and talk a little bit about that because that's a beautiful facility. So, as I said, we partner with many local organizations, and our dear friends from the Trion Fine Arts Center have the beautiful Vay Stage, B-E-H. And um, so we do our big musical there um usually every spring, and then we do our youth production there. And this year, our youth production is Newsies Junior, and that will be from July 16th through the 19th, and that'll be directed by Donna Everett Ferguson, and our music director is Pam McNeil. So we do that show up there now. All the rehearsals take place in our workshop, as we call it, our home sweet home, and that is um where uh where our workshop is, and then we do the we move in about five days before the production. Um, and then we do the production at the Try and Fine Arts Center. This year coming up, we're going to do all of our season at our workshop at 516 South Trade Street in Tryon. That's the where you the the facility. Our workshop. Okay, great. So talk about then back to Newsy's Junior. So now this is um for the folks who uh don't know about junior productions, is this the full production or is it an abridged version? It's an abridged version, it's one hour long, you know, and um it it's children eight through eighteen. And like I said, they just had an audition workshop. They just had auditions, and we take every child that auditions, which I think is pretty wonderful. And um, we really uh have a great, great cast. And Donna Everett Ferguson not only has been a staunch supporter of the Tri and Little Theater for years and years, she was just in our production of Steel Magnolias. She's been in a bunch of our productions. She's also a great director, of course, because she's directing 42 children and New Zealand, but she was also the drama coach and English teacher at our local high school, the Polk County High School, where my daughter Emily, um she benefited from Donna's tutelage there. So it's it's comes full circle. It's pretty great. Did Emily also act? She did. So her and I got to be in a few productions together, which was a dream come true for mom. I don't know about my daughter, but we did um Oliver. I was Nancy, and she was Bet. And um, we we were in High Society together and uh some other shows. And then she did the youth show. She she played Ariel in Little Mermaid and a few other things. So yeah. Now in the productions too, uh, aside from being in them, have you ever directed at all? I have zero interest in directing. I think that's amazing. I like to be told where to stand, what to sing, how to say it. As much of an alpha bossy person as I am, I have zero interest in doing that. I think it's an amazing skill set. And I love my friends that are directors. I think they're amazing. Yeah, it's funny you say that because a lot of actors I'll speak to eventually try or give it a directing a shot. And the reason they don't tell the truth, but the reason is they don't have to memorize lines that way. You know, so you're a director, you have other people memorize the lines. So and some people, as they get older, you know, I guess it gets harder to memorize lines. Oh, yeah. So talk a little bit then then, since you mentioned already uh the junior productions you do. So sorry from the regular theater, you have a whole junior theater program. Absolutely. And it's been in existence for many decades. Um, we used to actually be in connection to our our youth center. Um, and we also benefit from grants from the Polk County Community Foundation. We have a recurring grant called the Kirby Fund and the Wilhelm grant, but the big grants for the productions at the Try and Fine Arts Center, because it costs around $15,000 to rent everything there for eight days. Because you have to imagine they can't do any other shows really there because we have our sets there and we have everything there in the costumes backstage. So it's a great um partnership that we have, and they give us a local rate and it's it's excellent. But, you know, one of the things we want to do in our refurbishment campaign is by having our sets and costumes in a separate building than they are now, we can expand our uh seating to about 105. So that's what we're looking to do. And you can do so many more shows with that number of seats and a little bit more room for the actual stage. Well, one of the things that you folks do and you do so well, is the fact that I think it's one of their philosophies that you actually use live musicians. Yes, we do. And I'm trying to think now, I'll I I'll come up with a name. The first time I ever saw that it blew me away. I saw State Fair, I think, did a couple of years ago. Yes, I was in that. I was the mother. Oh, were you really? Okay, yes. Anyway, I had so much fun with it, but I could not believe it that I didn't see the orchestra, you know. No, we're to the side of the yep. But it was so good, and then I asked somebody, and I couldn't believe it, it was a live orchestra because so many theaters now, and you told me that one time we spoke, but that's your philosophy is to have live music, and so what a difference, you know. So all your all your musical productions have live music. Absolutely, and it's so funny. There's and I I don't mean to to go off on a tangent, but when I first came, we were as many theaters do, you're trying to save money, right? And I was I was new to the theater, and I remember I said, Hey, we could we don't have to pay all these musicians, like it was this new idea, you know, and everybody just kind of looked at me. And I remember Jeff Carter, who was uh and him and his wife Sherry are they're just huge fans of Trying Little Theater, and Jeff's been in almost every musical, and Sherry used to do our costumes. But Jeff stood up and he said, Susie Coker, we are not getting, we are always going to have live musicians. He said, Let me tell you why. And I said, Okay. And he said, We are amateurs, and when I look down, now remember in State Fair, they were off to the right, but in the big musicals, like I did Mama Mia, and we did um the drowsy chaperon and all these musicals, Pam McNeil is our music director or Lena Duncan, and you are looking at their head as you're singing out to the audience. And if I make a mistake, Pam's gonna catch me and they pivot on a dime. So he said, We are never going to not have our wonderful music directors and our live musicians. And I can't tell you how many times we have been saved by a very quick pivot orchestra that just saves the day because we jumped a line or something. And you give a shout out, especially since you mentioned her to Pam McNeil, but I've seen a couple of shows now she's done the music for, and it's really outstanding. You know, it's it just it put I told you when I saw State Fair though, I could not believe that that was a live. Yes, I'm so glad. Thank you for uh honoring that for us because that's something I feel that we're really unique. Now I know Spartanburg Little Theater, they always have a live orchestra too, but for such a small theater, right, to actually insist on that is pretty cool. But we, you know, I I think people come to our shows for the first time kind of thinking, oh, isn't this cute? This little town has a theater. And then they'll come up to us afterwards, just blown away, and say, Oh my goodness, I had I didn't have any expectations to see such quality work. So thank you for uh bringing our our wonderful musicians up and uh the fact that we do a live live orchestra. Well, you and I even could do the one time we spoke about the fact that it's it it the alternative would be to have like uh actors mouth the words, you know. If you could have musicians, you know, with mouth the words, why can't you have actors mouth the words? I remember the first show I think I saw at your place, which one of my favorites was I'm not perfect, you're not perfect, or whatever. I'm not yeah, change. Yeah, I love you, you're perfect, now change. I love you. Yeah, but even that, it was just a small, it was but even have keyboards and one other person, but it was fantastic, you know. Yeah, and it's it made a uh difference. So let's talk then back to the shows themselves. So I'm saying a couple this year. Talk about we're in now, I guess, uh June. You have anything else coming up for the rest of the year? Oh my gosh, I'm so glad you asked, Blaine. So we just launched our new season, and the way we did it this year was the opening night of Steel Magnolias, which ran for three weeks. So we did our season reveal there. You know, again, we had high hopes of doing a bigger reveal, which I think we're going to do next year. But you know how it is. You have show after show after show, and we just launched our campaign. We did a big fundraiser in December or in January. We did a big fundraiser in December. So there's always something happening. But let me just tell you our new season, um, and I have the dates here, Something's Afoot, which is a musical, the Agatha Christie, which I'm really excited about that. And that'll be um September 17th through 20th and 24th through the 27th. And again, that will be at the TLT workshop, as we call it, at 516 South Trade Street in Tryon. So you can go on to our website at any time, and we have uh we have just so much information on there. But you go to TLTinfo.org and you can see our whole season. So we start out the fall um with something's a foot, the musicals. We're really excited about that. We're having Linda Killian come back to direct that. And Jim Powell was a former, he's he's acted a bunch and he was a former board member and he's producing and he's super organized, and he's already sending me pictures of furniture that they're gonna use and everything. So that's great. So is that so the shows then only have a two-week run? Correct, at the workshop. That's right. Yeah, now we did steal Magnolias for three weeks just because of the people love that show so much, and so we had uh we felt like it was a good idea to do it for three weeks, and a lot of theaters just do Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We actually do Thursday, Friday, Saturday evening, and then we do a Sunday matinee. So we did three full weeks, and the actors they worked really hard. We we they were incredible. I I just loved it so much. Um, so after um Something's Afoot, we go in November to 12 Angry Jurors, and you remember it used to be 12 Angry Men. So we're modern modern folks now, so it's 12 Angry Jurors, which opens it up to both sexes, which is nice. And that'll be November 12th through the 15th, and then November 19th through the 22nd. Then we move into 2027, and we're very excited. We're doing Little Women the Musical, and that is going to be directed by Scott Waddell, who's on our executive committee, and that'll be March 11th through the 21st. And again, that goes two weeks. And all the shows for our season in honor of our home sweet home refurbishment campaign are going to be at the workshop facility. And then we finish up the season, which I'm really excited about this show, the Suite Delala Swim Club. And that'll be uh directed by Dan Harvey, who's directed many of our big musicals and our straight shows. Um, I met Dan when I did Streetcar Named Desire in Spartanburg, which you and I were talking about when I saw you with the with the Shakespeare and Friends um production, but I met him down. There and we kind of dragged him up to Tryon. The first thing that he directed was Fiddler on the Roof. And uh that was just a wonderful production. But that will be May 6th through the 9th and the 13th through the 16th of 2027. And Sweet Delilah Swim Club is really fun. Tryon's an older community. I mean, more people are, you know, it's kind of like uh uh, you know, seniors, but um, so the Sweet Delilah Swim Club is about these women that kind of go to the beach every summer and they're college buddies, and they were all on this swim club together. And I actually did the show down in Spartanburg years ago, so it's a really, really fun show. So now which so out of those shows, so you're talking the um the facility where the work you calling the workshop facility, that's on that where you have the the small where sorry on that perfect, that's at that location. Yes, yes, and then so will any of them be at the the uh the bigger the only thing that we'll have next year will be our youth production in the summer. So normally we have our spring musical, and but this is a smaller musical, little women. And like I said, because we launched our refurbishment campaign, um, we can save funds, you know, doing it at our workshop as well. Okay, so that'll they'll all be at the workshop you're calling. Correct, correct, you got it. So interesting season. Will I get to see you in any of them? Do you think? Unfortunately, no, because I'm on the road all the time. So until I retire, I'm going to just cheer everybody on and, you know, do things like I'm doing your podcast. I'm gonna be at the Koanas Club on Wednesday. I was at the Rotary, trying to really increase awareness, and that is really fun. I like to plan a lot of the uh fundraisers with some of our wonderful board members. Kelly Piffer is a dear friend of mine. I met her in Spartanburg again. We were in a show together there, and she moved up to our area. She's a beautiful house on the lake, and she's become a real important member of the board. We have Brenda Craig, I think you saw her in Dirty Rotten. She's doing a show right now in Hendersonville. That's another theater we do a lot of trading back and forth with. They're so great, and uh, we all cheer each other on. I said convention. What show she's in at Hendersonville? Do you um Bright Star, which we did Bright Star, yeah. I'm you know, I get a lot of mother roles when I'm I was the mother in that show too. So but she did another show just recently at at Hendersonville. I think I saw her. She's been a couple things I've seen here. Yeah, she she Brenda loves being in shows, and she's also an incredible board member. She's the head of our play selection committee, so she's just she's great at at everything she does. And then we have Maggie Carter. She was just in Steel Magnolia. She's she's our young, young person on our board. We're uh she helps us with all our social media. We have a TikTok page and we do Facebook, Facebook, and Instagram as well. So Maggie helps us stay like with the with the cool youth. So talk a little bit then then the other thing we started uh mentioning the fact that in middlewold is you're also doing this campaign. And what does that entail? So it's a it's a very well-thought-out campaign. And we have, like I said, we are I like how you said that well-thought out campaign. Well, we as opposed to just thrown together like sometimes theatrical people can do, right? Right. So Mark Sawyer is a former contractor, so he is very steadfast in how we are approaching this. Um, Kelly Piper brought us an architect who is just wonderful with nonprofits. Um, her name is Jessica Greer, and and we'll be working with her. But what the just to keep it real simple, the things that we are improving, the main thing is increasing capacity, increasing ability for patrons, more patrons to see our shows. Because Blaine, most of the time we're selling out with just 72 seats, even though we run eight productions, eight, eight shows. So to have a hundred seats will be amazing. So right now we have our shop right behind the theater. Now imagine 42 kids at Newsie's Junior rehearsal, and right behind the stage are a bunch of bandsaws and and and drills and everything else. So it's imperative for us to increase our safety to have a separate building. So that is going to be really the main part of our refurbishment campaign. We also have dressing rooms backstage, but we do not have separate restrooms for our actors. So they actually have to sneak around on opening night and they have to kind of sneak into we have two bathrooms in the lobby area. So those are super important things. We are also currently renting um a space in Tryon, very close by, and our wonderful, you know, landlords, they've kept the price the same, but it's a separate building. So we can bring everything be under one roof. We're going to increase our parking facilities, and we're going to get a new sign, and we have to bring things up to code, increase elect uh improve electrical and plumbing and things like that. So that's pretty much the entire thing, which is still a lot. And uh we always said we're a former Napa Auto Parts store, and you can kind of tell that it's almost like seeing those old Pizza Hut buildings. You kind of know there was a Pizza Hut there. So we want to improve the, you know, the outside of the building as well. How long does the campaign run? So we just launched it at the end of the year and we've raised about $30,000, like I said. Um, and we have patrons that, as we get going, um, they have pledged uh their support. We also have incredible so support. Blaine, I can't say enough about our local Polk County Community Foundation. They have helped us with so many things. We have a um a building that was gifted to the Tri and Little Theater. We are their stewards. It's a historic cabin right down the road. It's called the Sunnydale Cabin. So a lot of times we have auditions up there and we rent the facility out for churches and dances and all types of things. Um, it's a beautiful cabin and it was gifted to the theater by Bob and Jackie Lane. Um, and that was back in 2011. So we've been, you know, really we get a lot of help from the Polk County Community Community Foundation to maintain that historic building. It's on the historic registry. So TLT has a lot of different things going on at all times. And let's talk if we can about if folks who are listening or watching this want to get involved. So I guess that there are a couple different ways people can get involved. So, in terms of if somebody wants to be involved in a show or production, what do they do to get involved? So they can call our the the theater itself, it's 828-859-2466. They can go on the website TLTinfo.org, and we have a button for volunteering, we have a button for donating, we have um you can get audition information. But Blaine, I can't tell you how many amazing volunteers we have from all different walks of life. We have moms that help with the youth show and they bring their little kids along, and those kids ends up end up being in youth shows, and those kids end up growing up, and then their kids come back and they're in TLT shows. So we have set construction volunteers. They, like I said, this group of incredible individuals. They paint, they build sets, they're so much fun, and they're so giving and wonderful. You have box office volunteers, you have ushers. We have two ladies. They are uh their names are escaping me right now, but they're so much fun, and they are the ushers for every opening night, and they are that they are it is a party when they're there. And uh we have um box office, like I said, we have marketing volunteers, we have people that help us with right now. We are um just launching our our sponsors and donors campaigns. So my husband, I make him be a sponsor every year. We're called Blockhouse Sport Horses. So every year I'm like, we're gonna be a sponsor. So a lot of local businesses, you know, um just banks and grocery stores and all different businesses. So we try to get 20 to 30 uh season sponsors. And the really cool thing about being a sponsor for TLT is that we say your name, and I think you've been at several productions. We'll say thank you so much to Wood Creek Dental. And we list every single season sponsor. So a lot of times these businesses will say, I've never had a person come in to get their teeth cleaned, and they're like, Oh, I was at Steel Magnolias, and I heard that you guys, I heard that you guys are sponsors. They also get an ad in the program for the whole run. So it's a it's a great opportunity, and we keep our prices affordable for donors and sponsors. And talk about then also in terms of um volunteers. So some of your volunteers, I guess it's probably exciting, have never been involved in theater before. Do you have that happen? Oh, absolutely. And it's so cool. Like a friend of mine, um, her daughter uh rides horses and she used to do shows. We hear this all the time. You'll be at a party, and somebody says, Oh, I used to do shows when I was in high school, and my ears just, you know, I'm always looking for people to help out. So um, you know, she was just talking about how she was retired and she was looking for some things to do. I'm like, oh, you shouldn't have said that to me, you know. So we have a lot of if I hear about people like that, and you know how it is in community theater, I don't know if it's like that where you are, but a lot of times there's a lot more women that audition than men. Right. So, like in the equestrian community, there was a former, you know, he was like a former general and he was very, he looked like a captain of a ship, you know. So he was in anything goes. I just recruited him in and he didn't really have to sing that much, and he had a few lines and he had a blast. But um, so it's we get that all the time. And I remember a friend of mine kind of talking about the beauty of community theater. And number one is that it's the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. I remember I said to the first director that I was auditioning for, I said, I don't know if you know if you have ever had anybody like this, but I have a job and I have kids and I have this and I have that. He goes, so does everybody else. He was like, everybody's busy. One of the great things by speaking to you is the fact that you're so enthusiastic about you know what you do. All the stuff you do with respect to the theater, what's your favorite part of it? I would have to say when we put together a fundraiser, because uh a theater fundraiser is like none other. I the very first one I was involved in, we actually did it at the Try and Fine Arts Center, and we did a um, we did like an Academy Awards kind of thing, and we had a red carpet, and we had the local funeral director, he had his hearse, and we we kind of drove people up, everybody got all dolled up, and we sang and we did different people did different uh songs from the shows they always wanted to do. And then we um there had been voting in town, so we had ballot boxes all through the town. So the creativity that comes through that, like right now, Scott Waddell on our executive committee, he loves being in charge of some of these things. So we're talking about doing fundraisers, we do small ones to help our campaigns, so we're not just doing some monster huge thing because we're a small theater, but we do smaller fundraisers, and one of the things that Scott is talking about doing is you know, dream roles. Like, like I'm in my 60s, but oh, I would want to sing a song from Greece or something, you know, over one of the like since you mentioned it, I'll mention one other other idea for the fundraiser, even though not active in your theater community, it's a little bit far away. But this great idea, Susie. One other idea is that everybody, including you, would recreate the very first role in amazing. But think about that. I so much want to do that with somebody, and even though your theater, I'd even volunteer to help with it, because wouldn't that be fun that again? A lot of people, you perhaps included, didn't even have camp, you know, video recordings of it or whatnot. So for your kids or your grandkids to see you as a tree, you know, whatever was the very first role. But wouldn't that be a fun thing to do? That would be amazing. That this would be the role nobody ever got to see them in. So keep that in mind. I love it. I'll be involved in help on it. But I just think that'd be so much fun that all these people would, you know, do their first role. Again, especially for kids and grandkids to see it, you know. They never oh my gosh. And like you said, people are like, I was a sheep in the I was a tree. Yeah, exactly. But just play with that idea, you and I'll do it sometime. Susan Coker recap just uh a couple things. Uh, the most important thing, if folks want to get more information about the theater, best bet is to do what? Go to our website tltinfo.org, and you will see all the wonderful things that are happening. Um, if you want to get involved, please call the theater. We are listed locally. The phone number there is 828-859-2466. And you can check us out on social media on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. And lastly, upcoming again is what shows the immediate upcoming. Yep. So we have Newsies Junior, that's July 16th through 19th, and that will be at the Tryon Fine Arts Center. We have a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening production at 7:30, and our Sunday production starting at 3. Okay. Anyway, Susie Coker, I'd like to thank you for being my guest on this edition of the Blankwell Show. Also, I'd like to thank my producer capitacetti, and hopefully we will bump each other again sometime in the near future, if not before. That sounds great. It was a pleasure to meet you uh in the audience, and I hope to see you in in an audience very soon or on stage. I understand you're making a cameo. Sounds like a plan. Do well. Thanks. Take care.