• HCCT Awards $500 Drama Scholarships to Two Highland Lakes Area Grads

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   As told by Co-founder GiGi Fischer:

Jim and I moved to Horseshoe Bay in 1983 from the Dallas area.  Our children were raised and Jim was still on the boards in Dallas and Kansas City and gone from home several days a week.  I had been a Theatre Arts Major and had promised myself that when the children were gone I would involve myself once again in theatre.  However, no theatre existed in this area.

I met a lady, Phyl Holbert, who also was a Theatre Arts Major and we became good friends.  I suggested to Phyl we would start a theatre ourselves.  In 1985 I finally convinced her that it was possible.  Phyl had lived in the area for some time and had many friends.  I asked her to compile a list of people she thought would be interested in having theatre in the community.  Many of these folks had come from cities and towns that enjoyed the arts and I hoped they would support our endeavor.

We sent invitations, to all the names provided, to attend a cocktail party at my home on June 6, 1985.  I was surprised and pleased with about 22 people in attendance and a good mix of local business folks as well as retirees.

After the social hour we had a meeting.  I explained what we wanted to accomplish.  I gave an overview of what was needed such as set building, lights and sound, acting, directing, play reading, costuming, box office, and all parts of this organization we would be building.  This was a diverse group and soon all present were visualizing some part of the theatre where they would fit and enjoy the activity.  Everyone was very enthusiastic.  As their enthusiasm grew I felt it was necessary to name the organization that evening.  This would make the organization a reality.  Everyone came up with ideas, but it was Melissa Rowe who came up with the Hill Country Community Theatre.  We all agreed that this would be inclusive of all the area not just Horseshoe Bay.  Next, we set a schedule of meeting dates and planning sessions.  We started these gatherings at a covered dish supper allowing all to really get acquainted as we grew in numbers.

After the inital meeting I asked several local business people, Jim Rowe and Charlie Keiser, to stay and help me form a Board of Governors.  We worked late into the evening and when we were through we had nine names to serve on the Board.  These people were contacted and all agreed to serve.  The original Board met monthly and each had a specific area for which they were responsible.

The Board at that time consisted of GiGi Fischer, President; Phyl Holbert, Vice President; Cookie Puckett, Secretary; Charlie Keiser, Business Management; Jim Rowe, Set Design; Ken Holbert, Light and sound; George Edgerton, Property Management; Marge Oberholtzer, Costume Design and Gloria Sams, Play Reading.  Each Board member was asked to find people to work in their area of interest.  The Board met monthly and the theatre's new members had monthly get togethers and meetings.

The early theatre meetings were covered dish suppers, fun filled and informative.  We brought in people who were involved in theatre to talk about different aspects of theatre.  At one such meeting Nadine and Roger Gutherie's son, home from a lead role on Broadway, sang and entertained us giving us support and ideas.

Another visiting actor gave us a lesson in mime.  After our suppers, I passed out cuttings from familiar plays and different folks took turns at reading and performing these cuttings.  It was amazing how much talent we had.

Betty Delisle, volunteered to do a regular newsletter to keep all informed.  She did a fantastic job and we still have "The Stage Whisper."  Finally after months of planning and reading we decided to get out feet wet.  Caroline Young had joined us by then and she pulled together some musical numbers and I prepared some readings from comedies.  We cast our Revue and put it on at Quail Point for all our supporters.  It was wildly successful. We were asked to do the Revue at the Yacht Club at Horseshoe Bay and it was well appreciated.

About this time we applied and got our non-profit status with the aid of Gil Jones and Bryan Hicks.

At the time of the second performance of the Revue, the Board decided to start building a patron base.  We decided to invite other members to join us as $25.00 a year.  This was to fund our first production to be held in April.  We were surprised at the numbers of people who became patrons.

We decided to do a one act play of Noel Coward's "Red Peppers" and the third act of Plaza Suite.  Horseshoe Bay allowed us to use Quail Point to rehearse.  Marble Falls High School donated their stage, and Jim Rowe found us warehouse space to build sets.  We did two performances in April.  We sold tickets for $2 each with free tickets to our newly formed patron group.  Thru all this planning, Bill Bray of the Highlander, gave us a lot of news coverage and various clubs in the Highland Lakes area invited us to come perform for them and tell them our goals.  We went to all clubs who invited us and some, like the Highland Lakes Service League, gave us a check to help us get started.  We never turned down an opportunity to go out in the community and tell all our plans for bringing theatre to this community.

The Board was now working on planning our future productions.  The Horsehoe Bay Heritage Guild asked us to do an old time melodrama for the Fourth of July celebration.  We wrote our own show on little known facts of the Texas Revolution.  Allison Keogh did much of the research for this.  We did three performances of "The Yellow Rose of Texas" that played to full houses.  After each performance we passed the hat and made a lot of money.  The Guild asked us to do a melodrama the next year and we did this for a number of years.

About this time I met Bill Pfuderer who was directing the summer musicals at Zilker Park in Austin.  I told him what we hoped to do and he came to Quail Point and gave us classes on acting and directing.  We also had help from UT who sent us Jim Wiseman to teach us how to construct sets and paint them.  Jim Rowe again came through with a storefront we could use for rehearsal space.

We now had our first season planned.  We would open with "Angel Street" and our second show would be "Dracula: The Musical".  I directed the first show, "Angel Street".  This starred Caroline & Ralph Young.  Caroline directed "Dracula" and it was very well done.  Melissa Rowe starred in that production.  Both shows were done at the High School on a Friday night, Saturday night and a Sunday matinee.  Now we planned our next melodrama for the Fourth of July.  We were receiving local recognition and were invited to perform at the Gateway park opening.

We also had another season to prepare for.  We decided to open with the "Odd Couple" female version.  This show was directed by Cookie Puckett and Peggy Jones.  This was the last show we would do at the High School.  The dress rehearsal was hilarious as we rehearsed with the curtain drawn and a basketball game on one side and a town meeting on the other.  However, the cast did a wonderful job and our audience adored the show.  Marble Falls was growng and the High School was going to be built in another location.  Getting space for our shows was difficult but an angel in the form of Dutch Lemming, Cottonwood Fire Chief, came to our rescue.  The Fire Department was borrowing space in a foreclosed structure and asked us to move in with their volunteer fire department.  The firemen plus our group all pitched in to build the stage.  We had lights and sound equipment donated to us by my son's band and Ken Holbert and Tom Sams worked hard to set all the technical equipment in the crows nest they constructed.  Nadine Gutherie who was now costume designer, did the curtains. Many hours  were put in by our crews to clean the bathroom, the building and create dressing areas.  We shared all of this with the fire trucks that were rolled in and out for each performance.  Many times you would perch on the fire truck to direct a play only to scramble down when the trucks were called out.  So now we were affectionately known as the Firehouse Theatre.  Our set builders made a sign with that designation to hang outside. 

We joined Texas Non-Profit Theatres and Austin Circle of Theatres.  We submitted "Laundry and Bourbon" and "Graceland" for two TNT contests and received Best acting awards.  The contests were a fun venture for all who attended.  The first was in San Antonio and the second was in Corpus Christi.

After doing "Cheating Cheaters", co directed by then President Vernas Hazlewood, "Throckmorton, Texas", "California Suite", "Lone Star" and "Laundry and Bourbon" the theatre and Fire Department found themselves homeless.  The building we were using was sold at auction.

We still had our storefront and the Board was still trying to find us a home.  So now we did a series of one act plays taking them on the road to the whole area.  We performed at Blue Lake Country Club, the Kingsland Communty Center, Meadowlakes Country Club. the old Sears building, the Yacht Club and any place we were invited.  We did shows like "Graceland" and "Asleep on the Wind" , "Actors Nightmare" and a wonderful piece that Caroline Young wrote, "Tryouts".

We have always had excellent Boards of Governors and now we needed our own space.  A large undertaking for any Board.  Land had been donated to us by the Kingsland Bank under Woody McCasland's auspices.  A local architect had plans for a theatre.  Two of our loyal supporters, Karen and Jim Jones and Liz and Paul Tabor hosted very successful fund raisers at their homes.  However, the cost of building a new theatre was just too much and we decided to renovate an existing property.  A committee was formed and the search was on.  Harvey Hazlewood headed up this committee.  Finally a boat dealership in Cottonwood Shores was sold at auction and we had our new home.  Ralph Young and Harvey and many others worked hard to turn the metal building into the theatre of our dreams.  Bill Pfuderer found chairs from an old movie house in Austin.  We were able to purchase them for $2.00 apiece.  Quida MacWilliams had donated her old golf cart to sell to finance the purchase of the chairs. (You still sit in those today)  There were only two rest rooms so they were designated as ladies and a port-a-let was brought in for the shows for the gentlemen.  We didn't have dressing rooms as yet but for the early shows actors were very creative in planning space backstage for their use.

Now the building was ready for our first show.  Dianne Salton directed "Steel Magnolias" to sold out houses.  The cast consisted of Melissa Rowe, Caroline Young, Gloria Sams, Phyl Holbert, Mary Beth Madsen and a young lady, Leigh Secrest, from Marble Falls High School, who later became our first scholarship recipient.

This show was followed by "Move Over Mrs. Markham" and "Blythe Spirit".  All during the first year at our new home our Board was thinking of ways to solidify our group with the community.  We took bus trips to see other theatres perform.  We had our patron meetings at the theatre and entertained the patrons and on one occasion, invited the local high school drama department to do their contest play.  We invited local artists to display their work during our shows and always we took snippets from plays we were about to perform to any and all lunch clubs and social clubs who asked for us and some to whom we volunteered a sneak peek.

Finally it became very apparent to the Board that we needed more space.  Jim Rowe stepped up and helped us add dressing rooms, scene shop, bathrooms, kitchen, prop storage and costume storage.

Everything was volunteer.  Programs, newsletter, box office, cleaning, costuming, set building and painting all were done by the Board or patrons.  The President of the Board was the Managing Director and it was a big job.

We did more shows.  "Run For Your Wife", "Of Thee I Sing", we brought in a one woman show "Shirley Valentine" and a one man show "Truman".  We brought in a director from Utah, Nina Lenoir, who directed "Talley's Folley"  and "Crimes of the Heart".  We did "The Foreigner", "The Nerd", "Mornings at Seven" (the set designer for this show was a student at Marble Falls High School).  We did "The Gazebo", "Lend Me a Tenor", Mike Gregoric directed "Tribute" and "Gypsy" and they were huge hits.

Shortly after "Of Thee I Sing", our very funny valentine, Phyl Holbert, left us.  We all gathered in clown costumes and put on a show of her favorite songs and skits.  It was a wonderful memorial to a special lady and at that time we honored her memory by naming our scholarship fund the Phyl Holbert Scholarship.

We began a children's summer program.  A friend of Nina's from Austin getting a graduate degree spent two summers helping us with this program.

We brought in acting coaches from Austin and held Saturday acting classes.  We did the plays "Mixed Emotions", "Don't Dress For Dinner", "The Moving of Lilla Barton", "Painting Churches", "Little Shop of Horrors", "Nunsense", and "Nunsense II".  We did "Sylvia" and "The Fantastiks", "The Last Night of Ballyhoo", "Harvey" and "Arsenic and Old Lace".

At this time, the theatre had grown to such a large operation that finding and keeping good volunteers was an increasing problem.  The Board decided that we should try hiring a Managing Director to take over the daily management of the business and lighten the load of the volunteeers.  Barbara George Reese was the first of our staff.  Barbara spent about a year with us until her move to Cincinnati.  Bruce Henney followed Barbara.  We did "A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To The Forum", "Sunshine Boys", "The Affections of May", "Cemetary Club", "Love, Sex and the IRS".  We staged "Laura", "Bell, Book and Candle", "The Prisoner of Second Avenue" and we did Christmas programming, staging "A Christmas Carol", "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever", "Nuncrackers", "Butterfingers Angel" and other Christmas themed shows.

We did "I Love you, You're Perfect, Now Change", "Same Time Next Year", "That Championship Season", "Bus Stop", "The Miracle Worker", "Over the River and Thru the Woods" and two original musicals by our own Jay Meredith, "Miss Julie" and "Leave It To the Navy".

Our children's program expanded and we added summer musicals.  we did "Tom Sawyer", "Annie", "The Wizard of Oz", "The King and I" and "The Hobbit".

We brought in a new manager, Mike Morelli.  Mike expanded our outreach in the community.  Networking with many groups.  We started working with Harmony School and Faith Academy.  A deceased member of the theatre left a sizable contribution allowing us to set up an endowment fund.  Mike introduced an exciting playwrights festival.  Mike and his lovely fiance were married on our stage and it was truly a magical event with many of our patron and Board members involved with the planning.  Our Board President, Vicki Cody, was a "Wedding Warrior".  Mike held acting and directing classes.  We did "Oklahoma!", "Lend Me a Tenor", "Do Not Go Gentle".  We did "Beauty and the Beast".  We did "Dear Santa", "The Gift of the Magi", "Del Val Divas", the two contest winners of the playwrights festival. In 2009, the theatre returned to an all-volunteer status. 

The theatre has grown just as Marble Falls and the surrounding area has grown.  Twenty five years ago there was one stop light between Marble Falls and Highway 29 in Burnet and rodeo was king!!  Anyone who has in any way worked  with HCCT, given money, goods or their talents has created their own little miracle. 

Who would have dreamed it could be?

~GIGI