Music
It's a bit large, but it'll be okay.
According to our theater guru, Mr. John Landris, we are the second oldest continuously running
little theater in Mississippi, if not the South.
I can't give you how old the building is, I'm not sure.
The building was a movie theater for a long time, for decades.
The owners of the movie theater in the building lived up here in the apartment.
Supposedly even died up here, and supposedly were haunted.
I personally can't speak to that, but I know people who say they can, so that's interesting.
Let's walk this way.
This is a great theater, it was a great old building, as I said.
When I was a youngster, it was a movie theater.
I came to my first movie here, one of those kids, his grandma packed me up with lots of candy
and sent me the show, and I walked in and paid my ticket, and they took all my candy away,
because you can't bring your candy to the theater even back then.
So I had my first movie with no snacks, but it was here at this building,
and that's always one of the hot topics when people come into the theater now to see our plays,
is, hey, I saw my first movie here, they will go to a specific movie that they saw here
and have great memories of that.
Well, you know, it's an old building, we own the building, we don't rent it,
we, the little theater, owns the building, and which is really nice,
because I know other community theaters are not so lucky to have to rent places
and find places to put on their shows, and they're very lucky to own this building.
The Haven is our building, the organization that runs it, maintains it,
and stages plays here at Travis is the Brookhaven Little Theater.
We are the second oldest, continuously operating community theater in the state of Mississippi.
Okay, it will work, you've just, you've got to practice in it, okay?
No, I don't know where I'll do it, because I, it's fine, we're warming it up, just...
I can't even get this knot out!
I'm pretty sure I have to take the knot out to break it.
Stupid weave.
I'm a wacky, I have to wear my freaking nail like a ear.
Uh, what's exactly my story?
You from Brookhaven?
Uh, no, I'm actually from Beethel, Mississippi, Franklin County,
in about 30 minutes this way.
And I've started plays, my first one ever, I was with Love It and Sweeney Todd two years ago,
and then I've tried to be in one ever show, because I really love it, it's fun,
and I'm just here, and now I'm the witch.
You have plans for acting in the future, or...?
Uh, maybe, I'm not really sure, probably not though,
I'll probably just be stuck here for the rest of my life, but that's okay too, whatever.
I have a lot of talented teenagers in this area,
and that's one of my big passions, is to have this theater,
we're restoring this theater, but we're also wanting to make it a state-of-the-art theater
to pass on to the future generation of Vespians, basically.
I can't even find a bush!
I'm crooked! I can't even find a bush!
I was born in Houston, Texas, and I moved here when I was about two,
and I got involved in 9th, 10th grade, and now in Baltimore College.
I'm still loving it.
Cool.
Has it moved on?
Shut up!
I'll never move on!
Broken kids or anything!
He's gonna be like, 50 years old!
I'm in the PLD production!
Can I eat a little more?
No!
First of all, they are the 49ers, about to be the best state-of-the-art man.
I'm actually originally from Southern California.
What'd you say?
I'm originally from Southern California.
Oh, cool.
Where in Southern California?
San Bernardino.
Cool.
When did you move to Brookhaven?
Well, I moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi, a couple of months ago,
but I got a wish to be a theater artist.
I was always in choir, and then all my friends used to do plays,
and I always wanted to be in plays, but I didn't know which theaters they were at
or how to get to theaters or when the plays were.
My friends would start telling me when auditions were,
so I auditioned for a hairspray when I was four years ago or three years ago.
Ever since then, I've been auditioning ever since.
Now I'm in basically school of arts.
I'm a vocal senior, and I'm in this new Halloween production,
and I'm the big bevel of...
I think if a theater like this were to just disappear and kind of fall into rubble
and be just a bunch of broken glass windows and dusty sidewalks,
I think what would be lost is one of the true anchors of this town,
which, you know, folks have childhood memories from coming here who still live here.
They've had their first kiss in the balcony on a date.
Now they're married to their husband for 50 years.
They come up to me all the time and tell me what movies they saw here,
the experiences they had,
and I think that it's here and that it is in great shape
and that we're renovating it and we move...
not only use it as a playhouse, but we're looking for other opportunities
to use it maybe to show movies again one day.
I think that if it wasn't here, it would be missed,
and that it really is one of the anchors of our town structurally as a building,
but also in the hearts of the residents who have memories here.
I think it would be missed in many ways and for many reasons,
and it is so important for towns this size to take real pride and effort
in restoring and redoing buildings and programs like this
just to show that we're viable and we're alive
and we can come together all ages of all different walks of life
and different parts of town and different places in the county
and we can come together and meet here and just make things happen,
whether it's a movie, a performance, a concert,
serving hot chocolate during the Christmas parade.
We just want to continue to reinvent ourselves
and use this building for many years to come.
It's just a very exciting and sound, never invented.
Tonight we rejoice in the death of a disastrous union of talent and tastelessness.
Being prepared to scream and fear as we present you
the scariest, most nauseating creation ever conceived.
