![]() Currently, the crew builds the sets on the stage. The proposal includes a workshop for building sets. The theater also hopes to raise funds for an addition to its 50-year-old building. Most schools pay for the performances, but the theater tries to waive their fee for economically challenged schools. Grants and sponsorships help with the cost of mainstage plays, as well as the schools program, called Greenville Theatre on Tour. They prepare a children’s play – with a set, costumes and props – stuff it all into a van, drive to the school, set up, perform for 300 to 500 children, strike the set, and rush back to the theater to help out. The theater also has a full-time, six-person acting troupe that travels to as many as 75 elementary schools a year throughout the Upstate. Expansive plays, like “Mary Poppins,” can cost $100,000 to produce. The theater, located in Heritage Green, has 600 seats. Back in the ’50s, it didn't confuse people. “There’s nothing little about the Greenville Theatre. New York City was “big theater,” he says. When regional and local theaters sprung up in the 1920s, ’30s, and ’40s, he says, they were called “little” theaters to differentiate them from Broadway. “The theater hasn't been ‘little’ since the 40s,” Allen says. When the McCallas arrived, and until about two years ago, the theater was The Greenville Little Theatre. (Sam caught the acting bug, too, and works at the Barter Theatre in Virginia.) So, they set their sights on stable jobs and found them at the Greenville theater. They were working in Dallas when their theater troupe disbanded, and their 4-year-old son, Sam, was ready to start school. Greenville wasn’t necessarily part of the script. They celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary on May 1. A Greenville native, Allen was in the graduate program after earning his bachelor’s at Wofford College. Suzanne and Allen have been “on the bus” since they met at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. It's about time for me to get off the bus.” “A lot of theater people needed to get off the bus, and you don't get off the bus because you can’t,” Suzanne says. It was horrible.’ Then they realized, ‘Oh, I'm at home at night,’” Allen says. “We've had actor friends say, when everybody was laid off, ‘Oh my gosh, I cried. They are eager to work, but COVID has also changed their perspective. ![]() “This hiatus is the longest we've gone without working on a play in 40 years,” Allen says. Suzanne directed “A Christmas Carol” in 2019 Allen directed “The Game’s Afoot” that November the theater closed months later. ![]() “It’s how we've been able to accomplish so much with so few.” It's kind of like our home because no one ever leaves,” she explains, not entirely in jest. The whole staff pitches in, Suzanne says. Allen and Suzanne do act, but they also direct, book the season, hire actors, design sets and costumes, meet with the board, clean bathrooms – anything that needs doing. ![]()
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