Pam is the retired Artistic Director of Hickory Community Theatre.
She joined the HCT family in July of 2000 as Managing Artistic Director of Hickory Community Theatre. In September of 2005, she happily turned the Managing half of her job over to John Rambo.
She came to Hickory with an extensive background in theatre and arts administration. A professional director of over 35 years, Pam has directed shows from most every genre of theatre. She has won awards for her directing by the Metrolina Theatre Association, the North Carolina Theatre Conference, as well as in Minneapolis, Chicago, Indiana, Southern California and Portland, Oregon where she lived for eight years before settling here. Starting as a fish in the “Three Billy Goats Gruff” at the age of four, Pam’s acting career led her to membership in Actor’s Equity, AFTRA, and SAG professional actors unions. She has earned her living doing stage, television, industrial, film, commercial and voice-over work.
As a teacher, Pam has taught acting, directing and children’s theatre in professional acting schools (including teaching the Shurtleff approach in Chicago for four years) and courses at Indiana University and the University of California at Irvine, where she received her MFA in Directing. During her three years at UCI, she was fortunate to work with Robert Cohen and Keith Fowler, as well as with Jerzy Grotowski, and his assistant Jim Slowiack, studying Objective Drama. Pam is also a member of the Dramatists Guild. Working with Beverly Cleary, the renowned children’s author, Pam wrote and directed Ramona of Klickitat Street for the Northwest Children’s Theatre in Portland. It was their best-selling show to date, helping to contribute to the theatre’s acclaim as the nation’s Outstanding Children’s Theater Company by the American Alliance of Theater and Education.
As an Artistic Director, she has worked with the community and professional theater sector — much preferring the community theatre. Here she finds the true love of theatre, where the heart of the art is most alive, and where the most collaborative art form there is finds its inspirational source.
Since coming to HCT, Pam has established the RugBug Theatre, the Hickory Community Theatre Endowment Fund, and the Encore Players. Because of her longtime passion for new works and classic theatre, new plays and Shakespeare can be seen regularly on the HCT stage.
Pam is thrilled to be living in such a wonderful community working with such talented people in a truly beautiful facility. She wishes to acknowledge her predecessor, Charles Jeffers, who in his tenure of 40 years brought Hickory Community Theatre to such a distinguished place in this community–truly a cornerstone of arts and culture.
