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Our general membership meeting was a success!
Here is a list of award recipients, including two new awards "Volunteer of the Year" and the "Bob Watrous Lifetime Achievement Award" A huge THANK YOU to all our volunteers!
Art Fuller Scholarship awards: Tru Stites and Jeff Smart
Outstanding Volunteer Odd Couple:
Vivian Diebel & Heidi Dagle
Outstanding Volunteer Vanities:
Christy Valle & McKenzie Kennedy
Outstanding Volunteer Butterflies are Free:
Will Thurston & Joe Kimmel
Outstanding Volunteer Nightwatch:
Claire Dann & Randy Milligan
Outstanding Volunteer Girls of the Garden Club:
Sandy Pierce, Michael Aardal, & Bret Parker
Kaleidoscope Outstanding Volunteers:
Vivian Diebel & Leah Mann
Outstanding Board Members: Heidi Dagle and McKenzie Kennedy
Volunteer of the Year: Vivian Marie Diebel
25 year volunteer award: Connie Ekard
Bob Watrous Lifetime Achievement Award: Bob Watrous
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Announcing our DIAMOND ANNIVERSARY SEASON!
This season of plays will celebrate and reflect the history of the Richland Players as well as its place in the Hanford and Tri Cities community. To this end, we have chosen a season of retrospect: six plays that were performed by the Players representing each decade from the 1940s to the 1990s/2000s, with a seventh “new” play that has never been performed at the Players before. Two of the plays will be single weekend “readers theater” style limited runs in order to fit all seven into a single season. Currently accepting directors applications.
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Dimming The Lights
by Patty Cook, President, The Richland Players
At the south end of the Richland Parkway, you will see a marquee blinking with lights announcing a current or upcoming production. It’s like a beacon in the night. It anchors The Parkway, a piece of history, adorning the building that has been a second home to many. Recently, a small crowd gathered beneath the marquee on a chilly night. Silently, with arms around each other in support and to ward off the cold night air, we stood while the marquee lights were turned off. The lights returned and went off again – for a second time. A few tears fell and memories were shared. It was our own version of a Broadway tradition known as “dimming the lights” in honor of members of our theater community that have passed away. Within the space of a few days, we lost two of our family members. One of those members had been a part of the Richland Players for a very long time. She dedicated decades to the Richland Players, on and off the stage. The other had been with us not as long, but long enough to touch the hearts of many who knew him. To honor those family members who have left us, we gathered outside our theatre and we turned off the bright marquee. We took a minute to reflect on the memory of our departed friends and the way they touched our lives. It’s quiet and dark – like the stage inside when no one is there to stand upon it. Those we have lost will never stand upon our stage again. We are left with the memory of their dedication and their talent. We will remember their faces, their smiles, the things that made us laugh - the joy they brought to so many of us. The Richland Players has been a place where people of various backgrounds and talents have gathered for 75 years. It started as a small family of people and has since grown exponentially. “Family” one may ask? Despite race, gender, ethnicity, religion – yes, we are a family. At the beginning of a production, many of us start out as strangers. By the final curtain, we have come to know and care for one another and thus become family. We bring with us our spouses, our children and sometimes our parents. We gather to celebrate life’s joyous occasions, and we come together to support and bring comfort in times of crisis. The Richland Players is a community theatre. A community, a family, for which I count myself blessed.
Remembering EJ Brewer and Phyllis Bowersock. Thank you for the wonderful memories, smiles, and support of the Richland Players.