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Theater is parcel to community
(by Barbara Christian - June 27, 2012)
WINDOW ON MAIN STREET, BY BARBARA CHRISTIAN
Theater is parcel to community
It's hard to believe, but did you know there are towns that don't have their own community theaters? In fact, its downright unthinkable any city, town or burg could exist without a place where make believe is the one and only goal.
While the stock and trade of any theater is fantasy, you don't have to look very far to find real life going on there. Just pull back the curtain, and you will find at least as much pathos, comedy, politics and pot-boiling drama behind the scenes as there is on the stage.
I was thinking about this the other day when I received an email from Lydian DeVere Yard, a Chagrin Falls native now living in Massachusetts. I'll get to the details of that in a minute.
First, you should know Lydian would not be on the planet at all if it had not been for the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre. Did I mention that romance also plays a role community theater?
Lydian's mom and dad, Judy and Rollin DeVere II, met at CVLT. Judy first laid eyes on her future husband from the audience. He was performing in a production of "Cyrano." Later they would share the stage in a CVLT melodrama "Love Rides the Rails." Judy played the heroine, and Rollin was the villain.
The rest is history, which includes two children, Lydian and her brother, Rollin III. Both were practically raised on the stage at the Chagrin Valley Little Theatre, performing there many times in shows with and without their parents.
Musically talented, it was no surprise when Lydian was drawn to and cast in musical productions, first as a child in the children's theater group. When she outgrew the kid stuff, she was seen on CVLT's main stage in numerous productions. In between, she was a Chagrin Falls High School music and theater standout, taking the lead parts in many school productions.
Lydian is now a mom and, as mentioned earlier, these days calls Massachusetts home. And she is still performing. That is where her email comes into the story. It arrived announcing her involvement as a founder of (what else?) a new theater company -- Dreamplay Theatre -- in Grafton, Mass.
In following the dream of helping to start this new company, Lydian is following in her grandmother's footsteps. Audrey DeVere was a founder of CVLT back in 1938. Greasepaint runs deep within the soul of the DeVere family.
Lydian tells us Dreamplay Theatre's first production, "A Light in the Piazza," will be staged Aug. 17-26. She will play the role of Clara and serve as producer. Point of her email was to request a plug for cause to which some of the proceeds of the show will go. It will be performed in a space now used by a nonprofit organization which serves people with psychiatric and development disorders, and half the box office will be donated to that organization.
It's one of those "pay it forward" moments we hear about, and, if you are so moved, you may want to donate to the hometown girl's new theater and its cause. The address is Dreamplay Theatre, P.O. Box 336, Grafton, MA 01519.
Those of us who live in or around Chagrin Falls, Solon and Chardon are so lucky to have local theater in our lives. As Lydian demonstrates, community theater is really more than what meets the eye.
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