Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 26, 1990 TAG: 9006230183
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ELAINE VIEL SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
All of that is about to end. It's not that the final member has kicked the bucket, or that in some sort of monumental hissy fit the entire membership has disbanded.
It's just that after a decade and more than 40 productions, the name Christiansburg Community Theater was just too confining.
Kymn Davidson-Hamley, co-public relations chairwoman for CCT, noticed the limitation when "about a year ago I had been asked to work on a brochure . . . Including the phrase `Christiansburg Community Theater - serving the New River Valley' didn't look right."
Another reason for the change, she said, was that the name "Christiansburg Community Theater wasn't working anymore. It was hurting us in fund-raising."
Some companies that had wanted to donate to the organization couldn't, she said, because Christiansburg "was not part of the company territory."
And since the membership of more than 100 is not limited to Christiansburg, but includes residents of Radford, Floyd, Salem, Roanoke, Blacksburg, Giles and Pulaski as well, she didn't want people of these areas or recent New River Valley residents to think they were unwelcome.
For a year, Davidson-Hamley said, members were asked to come up with new names and 150 suggestions were compiled, including Wilderness Players, Virginia Playmakers and Way Off-Broadway Players.
"My intention," Davidson-Hamley said, was to make the new name "geographically unspecific, inviting, yet professional, not too conservative - not too liberal, and easy to say and memorable."
The membership first chose Valley Players, but abandoned it upon discovering that name was being used by a group in Harrisonburg. So it was back to the list, and on June 12 the members voted to change the names to Playmakers & Company.
Davidson-Hamley said other changes will be made, too.
For one, Playmakers & Company will no longer use Christiansburg High School exclusively. Some shows, she said, need the high school facilities, but "this way we won't have to depend on the high school" for scheduling.
The group's final production under its old name was "6 Rms Riv Vu" last weekend at the Blacksburg Presbyterian Church.
Davidson-Hamley said the group hopes to do productions in Radford, at New River Community College and in Pulaski.
In March 1991, Mountain Lake will be the stage. The group was asked to mount a production of "The Night Thoreau Spent In Jail" at Mountain Lake by "a state humanities association."
Even the choice of plays for next year's season marks a departure for the group, Davidson-Hamley said.
"Before, they have stayed with light comedies and murder mysteries," she said. The 1990-91 season offers "more depth."
Next year's shows are "Agnes of God," "House of Blue Leaves," "Vanities" and "The Fourposter."
The group hopes to stage each show over two weekends instead of the Thursday-Friday-Saturday schedule it has had in the past.
by CNB