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It is a stage they know well—small, intimate, and where it all began. Their audience is one of familiar faces, a fan base they’ve built over the last 12 years, one that stands as a strong and united front.
Especially through the toughest of times.
This past September, they lost one of their own. This weekend, they will remember him in the best way they know how: by staging the first drama in the history of the Springs Community Theater Company, a troupe that John “Jay” Bennett helped start all of those years ago.
“I called him my ‘music man,’” co-director Diana Horn said of the company’s co-founder. “He was just an amazing man. He loved music. He loved theater. And he loved being part of theater.”
Theater loved him right back, according to Kathy Horn, who is co-directing the play with her sister-in-law. But it made sense to turn away from musicals—for which Mr. Bennett was always the musical director—and set out in a new direction: “Steel Magnolias,” filled with equal parts hilarity and tragedy.
“It’s slowly making its way back into community theater,” Kathy Horn said of the play, which was adapted into a 1989 film starring Julia Roberts and Sally Field. “For a while, people were just following the movie trend of it.
“We’ve only ever done musicals and the last couple we’ve done have been at the John Drew Theater,” she continued. “This year, we’re going back to our home at the Springs Presbyterian Church, and we’re doing a drama.”
The action of the play unfolds in a single beauty parlor and stars a cast of six women: Susan Conklin, Claire Hopkins, Virginia Shelby Haller, Jayne Freedman, David Vay and Shelley Bennett.
“The play itself shows how strong women can be and how their lives change over time,” Diana Horn said. “Shelley, one of the primary members of our cast, is Jay’s wife.”
“It’s her first show without him and she has a major role,” Kathy Horn added.
“And she’s very talented, so we’re not going to have a problem with her,” Diana Horn said. “She’s the one who wanted to come out and do it with us. It really all goes back to family.”
The Horn women know that well.
“Kathy’s been my sister-in-law for 39 years,” Diana Horn said. “I’m the older one. She was the flower girl at my wedding.”
She laughed, and continued, “We love directing together. Our whole family is theater people. Actually, Jayne Freedman, the president of the Springs Community Theater Company, is my sister. We’re a very tight-knit group. We’re very close. And even though Jay was not family, he was family to us.”
Diana Horn will never forget the moment she got the news. Mr. Bennett, who was a retired music teacher with a career that touched many schools on the East End, had suffered a heart attack at his home in Springs, and later died at Southampton Hospital.
He was 60 years old.
“It was a shock. He was my age. It was like, whoa, wait a second, it’s not supposed to happen at that age,” Diana Horn said. “We all pulled together for each other and for his wife and children. That’s when we decided we’d change our annual scholarship from the theater group to a benefit in his name. This will continue in the years we can give a scholarship. It will be in his name.
“I think he would absolutely love this show,” she continued. “He would love the fact we’re taking on a drama. He would be so excited that his wife Shelley is part of it, and his daughter, Courtney, is working backstage for us. This play gives a lot of feeling and I think, right now, our theater group needed to put out feeling. It’s helping us with the loss and helping us all be together. The show itself is wonderful, we have a fantastic cast and I can’t wait to see them on opening night.”
The Springs Community Theater will open “Steel Magnolias,” in memory of John “Jay” Bennett, on Friday, January 20, at 7 p.m. at the Springs Presbyterian Church, 5 Old Stone Highway, East Hampton. Additional performances will be held on Saturday, January 21, Friday, January 27, and Saturday, January 28, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20, and $15 for students and seniors. For more information, visit ovationtix.com/trs/pr/966789.
on Jan 16, 2017