Presented By Kathy Missel, ITA Board Member At-Large

There are many ways to measure excellence in community theatre. We can look at the quality of a production, the creativity of its artists, the challenges a theatre is willing to take on, or the number of people who walk through its doors.

But I believe the most important measure is this: What difference does a theatre make in the community it calls home?

Community theatre is about so much more than simply putting on a play. It creates a place where people of different ages, backgrounds, experiences and talent can come together with a common purpose. It gives people an opportunity to create, to learn, to take risks, to make friends, and sometimes to discover abilities they never knew they had.

And it gives something equally important to the community – a place to gather.

In a world where we increasingly experience life through screens and from a distance, community theatres brings us into the same room. They invite us to laugh together, cry together, think together – and perhaps, most importantly, to recognize something of ourselves in the stories being told onstage.

For almost six decades, Richmond Hill Players in Geneseo has been doing exactly that.

What began in 1968 as a dream shared by just six people - and a production of Molière’s The Miser staged on the top floor of an old dairy  barn - has grown into a remarkable community theatre tradition

Today that beautifully renovated barn welcomes approximately 160 people at a time in a wonderfully intimate in-the-round setting beneath its original rustic timbers. Approximately 150 active members contribute their time and talents each year, both onstage and behind the scenes. And the reach of Richmond Hill Players extends far beyond the Barn, drawing participants and audiences from a sixty-mile radius encompassing communities in both Illinois and Iowa.

But perhaps what is most impressive is their willingness to challenge both the artists who create these productions and the audiences who come to experience them. Richmond Hill doesn’t simply ask “What will be easy to produce?” It asks “What story is worth telling?”

That willingness to stretch, to experiment and to take on productions that present casting and technical challenges is one of the things that make a community theatre truly special.

For 58 years, Richmond Hill Players has provided a creative home for actors, directors, technicians, designers, volunteers and countless others. It has given audiences the opportunity to experience stories they might otherwise never encounter. And it has helped build something that cannot be measured by ticket sales alone: community.

That is the real gift of community theatre.

The actor who finds confidence.

The technician who discovers a talent behind the curtain.

The volunteer who makes lifelong friends.

The audience members who see a familiar story in an entirely new way.

 

And it is the community that comes together season after season to say: This matters. These stories matter. And the people who tell them matter.

For nearly six decades, Richmond Hill Players has demonstrated what happens when a small dream is nurtured, shared, and sustained by generations of people who believe in the power of theatre.

Today we are proud to recognize that extraordinary legacy and the continuing excellence of Richmond Hill Players.

On behalf of the Illinois Theatre Association, it is my great pleasure to present the Award of Excellence in Community Theatre to Richmond Hill Players. Accepting the award is board president Jonathan Grafft.

Congratulations and thank you for reminding us all that sometimes the most important thing a theatre can build isn’t a set. It’s a community.