By DEBORAH BUCKHALTER
Floridan Staff Writer
Published: September 10, 2009

Community theater is coming to Jackson County, thanks to the return of an old hand at local live performance.
On Thursday at 6 p.m., the public is invited to attend a meeting of The Little Theatre at Marianna, a new organization founded by Darryl Thompson and a group of friends.
The meeting will be held in the Chipola College Continuing Education building.
Soon, Thompson said, the theater will have its own home in downtown Marianna.
He hopes actors, potential patrons and those who’d like work behind the scenes will turn up to learn more Thursday.
He thinks there are plenty of people in the community who, like him, have a love for live performance and are willing to support it with their time, talents and money.
Thompson’s own theater involvement began when he was a teenager growing up in Marianna.
When he was 16 years old and working after school at his father’s Marianna print shop in the 1970s,  Thompson had a chance to meet Larry Alford, then the director of Chipola College theatre productions. Alford came in to have flyers printed for his shows.
Interested in theater, Thompson was shy to admit it to Alford outright. But he found a way to let him know.
The next time Alford came in with his flyers, Thompson started singing just within earshot.
“I was just near enough for him to hear,” Thompson recalled with a chuckle. “I think I sang that old Three Dog Night song, ‘Joy to the World.’”
The subtle overture got Alford’s attention, and he invited Thompson to audition for the upcoming show, “Bye, Bye, Birdie.”
He won a part in the show, and never looked back.
He worked in Chipola College theater for years, running lights and sound, acting, and learning all about the stage.
Along the way, in the 1980s, he was recruited to direct plays at Marianna High School.
Thompson was working for Bill Dunkle at WTYS radio back then, and Dunkle’s daughter was in the Marianna High School drama club. She suggested Thompson could   direct shows at her school.
He did that four or five years, also continuing his work with Chipola, before moving to Pensacola.
He continued working in community theater there, and decided to formalize his drama chops when he hit the age of 40.
“I said to myself that, in my midlife crisis, I could buy a sports car or go back to school, so I wound up going back to get my master of fine arts in theater,” Thompson explained.
With his University of Florida MFA in hand, Thompson eventually moved to Houston, where he has been teaching at Texas A&M University for the last five years.
About a month ago, Thompson moved back to Jackson County. Within a few weeks, he’d hit upon his plan to create a community theater group here.
“I’ve always believed that Jackson County is full of talented people, and I wanted to provide another outlet for them,” Thompson said. “I would never, never do anything to hurt Chipola; I love it, I got my start there, and our shows won’t be running when Chipola’s run. I think we’ll have something of a partnership with them.”
His organization plans to contribute to the Chipola College theatre scholarship program, he said.
Thompson already knows what his first show will be, and will soon start auditions for Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” It may be a challenge to get this production ready for the 2009 holiday season, but Thompson said he and the community are up to it.
He plans to have a children’s chorus performing in the show, and needs community members to serve as actors, build scenery, help with costumes, properties, lighting and sound.  About 30 actors are needed, in addition to the children’s chorus, he said.
He also needs a crew to man the box office, serve as ushers and sell concessions.
Thompson has big plans for his little theater.
“One production in our season each year will be the Classical Youth Theatre Festival,” he wrote in a press release about the new organization. “Area youth will have the opportunity to learn classical acting techniques for the Greek, Roman and Elizabethan periods. At the end of the two week workshop, the students will present several performances.”
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Theatre Scholarship Fund at Chipola College, he said in the release.
“As a teen, I got the acting bug at Chipola, and what better way to celebrate acting than by giving a student the financial ability to pursue a career in theater,” he wrote/
In addition to Thompson, the founding members of the organization are Carol Cook Dunaway, Charlotte Brunner, Patty Gortemoller, Dr. Ben and Melissa Saunders, Charles Norton, Stacey Mayo Gilliland, Jennie Ann Dean and Sarah Roberts.
Thompson can be reached via e-mail at littletheatreatmarianna@yahoo.com .

Photo courtesy Mark Skinner- Jackson County Floridan