About

It all started in 1984, with a conversation around a kitchen table in Quiogue. Rosemary Cline still remembers her (then mother-in-law) June Ewing and June’s son Jimmy talking with their friend Jim Irving about the idea of starting a theatre company. The plan was to gather like-minded individuals with an interest, training or experience in making live theatre, and then choose worthy plays and mount productions. That was the seed, nurtured with love and tremendous creative energy by June and others, that eventually bloomed into the first production of what was then known as the Westhampton Community Theater: “The Diary of Anne Frank.” Rosemary had her first role with the company (of many over the years) as Miep in that very first show, staged in the Westhampton Elementary School in 1985, and went on to take roles in almost all of the plays of the company’s first six years.

Gary Hygom, now the executive director of the Suffolk Theater in Riverhead (and husband of HTC board member Mary Powers Hygom), was one of the first people approached by “the two Jims.” As he recalls, “I agreed to join them and help get things moving. Our tech crew was made up of friends and family: Peter Marbury and Jimmy Ewing worked on building, painting, lighting … everything. We were very much a community theater; we worked and went out together: the Plitt family, the Marburys, Jimmy, Robby Thornton and others.”

The Marbury family played a key role in building the company and sustaining it over the years. Peter Marbury and Jimmy designed and built almost all of the sets in the company’s first three decades. Diana Marbury, whose first role with the company was in “Hot L Baltimore” in 1986, went on to take part in almost every production: whether as an actor, set dressing, or gathering furniture and props. She moved into directing in 1999, and also held the post of artistic director for a number of years.

Diana made sure that others in her and Peter’s family contributed as well: son Sascha providing artistic and fabrication support; son Sebastian providing artistic support in poster design as well as acting; and son Sean taking a few roles in different shows and helping with set construction. After Peter’s untimely death in 2009, Sean took on his father’s mantle and became, initially with Jimmy, the principal set designer and builder until 2020.

Another formative influence in the early years was Jane Stanton, who directed the company’s third production, 1986’s “Bedroom Farce,” and went on to become the company’s de facto resident director. She helped choose virtually every show for the first ten seasons, as well as the plays that she would direct in the seasons that followed, when other directors stepped up to help shoulder the load.

A professional with years of directing experience at every level, Jane had a gift for putting together seamless ensembles from casts that had widely different levels of experience, training and talent. In those early years, primarily with Jane as director, the company started building and burnishing a reputation for high-quality productions and a level of professionalism that set it apart from typical community theatres.

So it made sense that by the time it landed happily in its beautiful home at the Quogue Community Hall with “Anastasia” in the fall of 1987, the company had changed its name to the Hampton Theatre Company. In 1990, Jane invited Sarah Hunnewell – a member of the Snarks theatre troupe in NYC – to act in the company’s (first) production of A.R. Gurney’s “The Dining Room.” The experience led Sarah to return again and again; she bonded especially with Jimmy Ewing, and the two became a couple. After June Ewing died in 1992, it seemed fitting that Sarah and Jimmy should step into leadership roles; Sarah became HTC’s executive director, a post she held until she retired from the company in 2017, with Jimmy continuing as a board member, actor, director, creative contributor and set designer and builder. It’s hard to overstate the impact of Sarah’s tenure with the company. When she started, tickets were general admission and sold either at Lynne’s Cards and Gifts (board member Lynne Jones’s Westhampton Beach mainstay) or at the door. Salaries, except for each show’s director, were nonexistent. There was no fundraising; proceeds from ticket sales went toward buying lumber for the next production. Compare that with what the Hampton Theatre Company is now: a professional non-profit regional company with a vibrant interactive website, online ticket sales for assigned seating, playbills, and a year-round salaried general manager and bookkeeper. There’s pay for everyone who works on a show: not only the director, but all the designers, tech crew, carpenters, stage managers and actors. To augment revenue from ticket sales and playbill advertising, the HTC now utilizes an extensive snail mail and email database to support a series of robust fundraising initiatives and show promotion. Fundraising is critical, of course, because the professional status of the company and the high quality of HTC productions would not be possible without the generous support of patrons and donors.

Sarah needed help and support from everyone involved to shepherd the transition, but the HTC never could have entered the digital age or become the respected professional company that it is today without her commitment and determination.

On stage and off, the HTC has benefited from a long line of theatre people in addition to the Marburys who have come on board and stayed with the company. Andrew Botsford was invited by Jimmy Ewing to act in the company’s second production in 1985, and over the last 40 years he has appeared in more than 50 plays, worked backstage, held various positions on the board of directors and advisory board, drawn on his experience in journalism to oversee the company’s communications, and directed and produced.

Based on the company’s divergence from the standard nonprofit organizational model as well as the advisory board’s recommendations for greater sustainability, after Sarah Hunnewell’s retirement the position of executive director was eliminated. Andrew was elected president of the board and – together with his longtime collaborator and fellow founding member Rosemary Cline, who was elected vice president – started working toward systematizing all of the HTC’s operations.

The idea was, and is, to ensure that no single officer or member of the all-volunteer board would ever be responsible for an outsize portion of all the component duties required to keep the company operating efficiently, while still maintaining the high standard of production values that sets the HTC apart. As with Sarah, the value of Andrew and Rosemary’s contributions has been immeasurable. There would simply be no Hampton Theatre Company as it is known today on the East End without Andrew or Rosemary.

The same can be said of George Loizides, a longtime LI high-school drama teacher and director who spent years as a creative force at Bellport’s Playcrafters theatre troupe before landing at HTC in the cast of “Glengarry Glen Ross” in 2008. George has been indispensable to the theatre ever since, bringing an infectious enthusiasm to everything he does, from acting and directing, to designing and building sets, to fabricating and rummaging for props and vintage furniture at yard sales and thrift shops with his wife Kathy. George has also taken on the important work of administering the Diana and Peter Marbury Scholarship program, which has reaped huge rewards for the HTC and the live theatre community over the years

Upon his retirement from HBO in 2019, Quogue resident and longtime HTC fan Roger Moley immediately started pitching in, designing and creating projections for “Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery.” He helped the company through the early challenges of Covid and was formally invited to join the board in 2021. Since then he has become a key player, taking on a wide range of responsibilities: serving as rehearsal stage manager, co-directing with George and then Andrew, serving as music director for the holiday radio plays, assuming responsibility for all PR and communications, wrangling set furniture and props, and also producing, most recently for “Now and Then” in fall 2024. Elected president of the board in 2022, Roger has substantially broadened HTC’s outreach and profile, and continues to collaborate with Andrew and Rosemary on the sustainability work they started in 2017.

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Continuity has always been one of the keys to the company’s growth. The through line of support from the Ewing family can be seen in June’s three grandchildren – Eliah Ewing and his wife Andrea, Jennifer Ewing Tatanelli Brancatelli, and Chloe Ewing Tatanelli Bento – joining the first class of the June C. Ewing Producers Circle in 2018, with Eliah pledging a lifelong commitment.

Onstage and off, the HTC has been shaped over the last 40 years by passionate advocates of live theatre, several of whom have been connected since the early years. Gary Hygom met his future wife Mary Powers working backstage on “Hot L Baltimore” in 1986; both worked steadily at the theatre in various capacities for several years before moving on. After a lengthy absence, both were coaxed to return: Gary to design the set for “Native Gardens” in 2021, and Mary, now a board member, to direct two plays in 2024: “Strictly Murder” and “Now and Then.” The couple’s daughter Grace, now a college sophomore, started working backstage while still in high school, and was the production stage manager for last year’s “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” perhaps the HTC’s most ambitious production ever.

The late John Howard’s first show with the company was “God’s Favorite” in 1987; since then his daughters Siri and Joanna have both had roles in HTC plays. His wife Linda provided musical guidance for non-musical shows that required singing; and his daughter Jessica has worked backstage and acted in many productions over the years (most recently playing Domina in “Forum”). Jessica met her future husband, Seamus Naughton, during rehearsals for “Lady Windermere’s Fan” in 1998. Seamus had started working backstage for the company that year on its first production of “Sylvia”; he helped with set building and stage managing before becoming the company’s resident sound designer and audio engineer – a position he held until his untimely death in 2023.

Sebastian Paczynski first designed lighting for HTC for the company’s production of “Summer and Smoke” at Guild Hall in East Hampton in 2003. He installed a new lighting package in Quogue and designed the lighting for “Proof” in 2003, and has been the lighting designer for all HTC shows since then. In 2019, he proposed and won board approval for a major investment in LED theater lighting, making the HTC, after installation, one of the first theatre companies on Long Island to effect the transition. The capabilities of the new system were first displayed to glorious effect in “Man of La Mancha” in 2019, and have enhanced all the productions since then. Terry Brennan, the wife of actor, directo

r and former board member Ed Brennan, was first hired as general manager in 2016, and in the years since she has brought the company forward in more effective and efficient organization, improved branding and messaging, and superior customer service. Bookkeeper Julie Stark, with the help of board member and former treasurer Lulie Morrisey, has managed to keep the increasingly complex accounts in good order, earning high marks for the company at each annual audit.

Teresa LeBrun began helping HTC’s original costume designer Chuck Roeder in 1986, and has designed costumes for all the company’s productions since 2005. Julia Morgan Abrams first joined the company as house manager for the 2008-2009 season and has been supervising volunteers, organizing concessions and greeting patrons for every production ever since.

The list goes on. Joe Pallister’s first role with the company was in “A Streetcar Named Desire” in 1998. While he continues with his acting career in different venues and media, he still manages the HTC website and his company, DESIGNINGJOE, does all the HTC’s graphic design – including the artwork for the poster and the cover of this program. AEA member Matthew Conlon (Don Quixote in “Man of La Mancha,” among many other roles) first appeared on stage in Quogue in “The Heiress” in 1994, and has continued to act and sometimes work on sets with the company up to the present day.

Add to this cast of characters the many other actors, directors, and crew members and theatre advocates who have helped shape the company’s identity over the years, including, to name only a few: Jane Lowe Baldwin, Bob Blaisdell, Chrissie DePierro, Carolann Di Pirro, Rebecca Edana, Ed Brennan, Phil Eberhardt, Jessica Ellwood, Gail Gambino, Ed Kassar, Tom Leo, Jean Plitt, Mary Alyce Vienneau, Morgan Vaughn, John Zaleski and current board members Amanda Griemsmann, Terrance Fiore, Catherine Maloney, and Betsy Webb Rowe.

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A shared passion for creating live theatre of the highest quality by these and many other contributors has fueled the success of the Hampton Theatre Company over the past four decades. That’s not to say there haven’t been challenges. A necessary major renovation of the Quogue Community Hall that took almost four years to complete led to a nomadic stretch for the HTC: the company staged 10 shows at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center and Guild Hall in East Hampton from 2000 to 2004. More recently, during the Covid pandemic, the HTC painstakingly adopted the necessary protocols to allow it to reopen its doors – at first to spaced-apart audiences at one-third of house capacity – to live audiences in 2021. The company stayed the course, following the law and requiring proof of vaccination from faithful patrons, when many small regional companies around the country were forced to go under.