LOCALS LOVE US: ‘Unnecessary Farce’ brings smiles to readers, director
JENNIFER FIERRO • PICAYUNE STAFF
MARBLE FALLS — Just maybe being chosen for a “Locals Love Us” award will be enough to entice Jon Clark to direct another play.Clark directed The Hill Country Community Theatre’s “Unnecessary Farce,” which earned the honor of Best Theater Production for the Llano area from The Picayune readers. The production ran last fall at the theater in Cottonwood Shores.
“It’s definitely nice to know we did something right,” he said. “You don’t do what you love primarily for awards. When those come around, I’m grateful and humbled by it.”
Before this play, however, Clark didn’t want to direct a production.
But that changed when Clark, the Marble Falls Middle School theater arts teacher, was handed the script from his former high school teacher, Mary Ann Fletcher.
“I was laughing out loud when I read it to myself,” he said with a smile.
It also helped that most of the rehearsals were during the summer, when he isn’t teaching, Clark said.
Once he decided to direct, Clark recruited Adam Goodman to serve as the technical director.
“He liked doing the technical thing and learned more about it,” he said. “That’s the straw that broke the camel’s back as far as me doing the production. Without him, I’m not sure I’d do the play.”
The moment the cast gathered together for the first reading confirmed to Clark what he already thought.
“The timing was right and the play was right,” he said. “And the casting was perfect. I just knew it was going to be great. A lot of hard work went into it. I’m proud to be a small part of it.”
So will he direct another?
“If the right one comes around,” he said with a grin. “And if Hill Country Community Theatre wants me again.”
jfierro@thepicayune.com