HATTheatre

I keep trying but I still can’t get my feeble little arms all the way around the theater community in this town. Just the other day I was nicely encouraged to include HATTheatre on my list of “Producers.” I’ve heard about this group for years – they’ve been around for more than a dozen – but I have never seen one of their productions. My bad, I know. They tell me their website is in the midst of a major revamp so it’ll probably be worth checking out again in a few weeks.

One of the most impressive things about HAT that I know of is their focus on doing shows in Richmond that are local premieres. As someone who has had to sit through several productions of the same play, I always appreciate a premiere. They’ve also had some great people working with/for them including Julie Fulcher, Joy Williams, and Scott Wichmann.

I apologize in advance for anyone else I’ve left off of my list. I expect it will continue to grow as time goes by. But one thing I should say: I won’t be keeping track of all of the church, school and community groups that also do theater, even though some of them are quite good, devote significant funds to their productions, and have a lot of great people working for them. I’m sorry if this seems a little arbitrary but I’ve got to draw the line somewhere. There’s just too much theater in this town for one already overwhelmed individual to keep track of it all.

Which is why it’s such a shame that the Times-Dispatch is apparently planning to keep track of even less of it…But that’s a subject for another day.