20 | GREENVILLE JOURNAL | 09.08.2017 GREENVILLEJOURNAL.COM
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llen and Suzanne McCalla weren’t sure how long their tenure was going to last at Greenville Little Theatre. When they were hired in 1993, the theater was in trouble. Debt had climbed, and season subscriptions had plummeted after a series of missteps. The board made the McCallas a deal: the board would take care of the debt if the husband-and-wife duo would take care of the audiences. The McCallas succeeded… and then some. This year marks the McCallas’ silver anniversary with the theater. During their tenure, they’ve produced more than 180 shows and tripled attendance. Here are some of the highlights:
“Little Foxes,” 2002
“[Allen] was much beloved by the audience, and I am playing Regina, who is the biggest b**ch in written history,” Suzanne says. “Allen is an invalid in the show and he’s dying. He’s in a wheelchair, and they’re having an argument and he starts having a heart attack. As he is trying to take his medicine, he drops the spoon. He’s trying to pick it up and people are screaming, ‘Pick up the spoon.’” She decides to let him die. “We say there are still people who like to hold it against her,” Allen says.
“Ah, Wilderness,” 2005
“Ah, Wilderness” is the only time the McCallas have appeared in a GLT play with their son Sam. They, fittingly, played the parents and he, the son. “The ‘Ah, Wilderness’ dad is probably calmer and wiser, but he’s still a dad,” Allen says.
“Romeo and Juliet,” 2007 “The New Odd Couple,” 1993
Allen was performing in a production of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing” with Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre when a friend of his mother told him GLT was looking for new leadership. All of the applicants had to direct a play in that theater’s season. The McCallas wanted “To Kill a Mockingbird” but were given a female version of “The Odd Couple” instead. Allen directed, and Suzanne designed the sets and costumes. The play was a success.
“Beehive,” 1995
GLT, like a lot of theaters, was set up for Broadway shows, not pop musicals. “A show would run on Broadway for three years, closed, and then released to theaters like ours,” Allen says. Suzanne adds, “Things began to change. Musicals closed on Broadway, and went on tour and not released. Different types of musicals began being written as well. ‘Beehive’ was somebody who wanted to do a set of songs and felt like they couldn’t do it without words.” So GLT put the show in its season, not realizing that it might be hard to cast because it required a lot of black talent, something the theater had had difficulty y
Born Yesterda
attracting before. The theater was able to find the performers it needed, and the show was a success.
“Born Yesterday,” 1995
The first play the McCallas appeared in at GLT was “Born Yesterday,” something they had done in Kentucky. “There’s a role in it that is written for Suzanne practically, Billie Dawn, and she was fantastic in it,” Allen says. He played a love interest. “And you were good in it,” Suzanne says.
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” 1998
“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” was the first Shakespeare play performed on the GLT stage. The play really brought out the company’s creative side. One artist made fairy wings out of watercolor chiffon that were mounted on sticks and branches, while another painted Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” as the backdrop. The rest of the set was a series of slides that went into pools of water. “It was just a lot of fun. It was a jungle gym of fun for the fairies, and the people, too,” Suzanne says. She still has those wings.
“Romeo and Juliet” was the only other Shakespeare play produced by GLT. “I thought everybody would love ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ We did it for Sam, who was about to go off to college, and it was like, ‘OK, you’re going to be trained by the master right here. You’re doing Shakespeare before you go,’” Suzanne says, “and there was a lot of artistic interest in the show.” It was also the first time GLT created all the costumes for the show.
“Ain’t Misbehaving,” 2007
This was GLT’s first all-black cast, and it included high school student Delvin Choice, who later would go on to compete on NBC’s “The Voice.” “We were so proud that our audience embraced it. It was a fantastic show with fantastic music. It really speaks well of the audience we have,” Allen says.
“A Streetcar Named Desire,” 2010
“Every element of it worked. There wasn’t a miss at all,” says Suzanne, of her set design. “It just screamed New Orleans.” Allen adds, “If you’re designing a box set, it’s one room. Clever plays like ‘Streetcar’ take place in several places. You have to create an environment, and she created a great environment.”
Beehive
Les Miserables