Highlands Little Theatre - Margie Pollard

P.O. Box 691 Sebring Florida USA 33871 Tel: 863-382-2525

Margie Pollard - An Amazing Non-Acting Career at HLT
By: Roy Riedy

Margie Pollard seems content to work unrecognized behind the scenes at Highlands Little Theatre, and work she has and continues to do. Since she served unidentified on the 1987 stage crew of Cabaret and then was finally recognized as one of the crew of Carousel in 1988, the show that inaugurated the new stage at HLT, she has been part of twenty-one other stage crews and twenty-four Set Construction Teams.

In 1991 she started another long career as a Producer with the production of Music Man, and since that successful first effort has produced twenty-one other shows and won Best Producer Zenon Awards for eight of them which include: Music Man (1991); Funny Girl (1992); Camelot (1993); South Pacific (1994); Gypsy (1995); Fiddler on the Roof (1996); The Wizard of Oz and her eighth for the second edition of Brigadoon (2003). (1999).

It was also in 1991 that Margie became associated with the then new Anthony's Lounge which had opened in late 1989 . HLT playbills for the next eleven years associate her name thirty-five more times with the lounge since that initial announcement twelve years ago.

1991 was also the year that Margie started stage managing and since then has supervised six shows. The first show she worked on was The Seven Year Itch in 1991. The next year it was Mame which won her a Best Stage Manager Zenon Awards for her effort. This was followed in 1992 by They're Playing Our Song, and Inherit the Wind. In 1995 she was the Stage Manager of The Goodbye Girl, and her latest show to date has been the 1997 summer production of George Washington Slept Here.

As if this diversity wasn't enough, in 1997 Margie became associated with HLT's Box Office force and added that phase of show business to the long variety of her theatrical accomplishments and has continued in this project for over a dozen more times. If it wasn't for an acknowledgment of her name in the playbills, one would be hard pressed to identify this hard working lady, for the only time she has appeared on HLT's stage in front of an audience has been at the Zenon Awards Presentations at the close of each season to pick up another well earned trophy that signals her abiding effort in so many facets of theatrical work. So far her stage appearances have reached eleven, the latest in the 2000 edition of the musical Oliver!.

Besides seven Zenons for Best Producer and one for Best Stage Manager, Margie was awarded a Discretionary Zenon Awards in 1991, and in 1996 the prized Janelou Buck Significant Achievement Award, the award that addresses selfless and long time service to our theatrical organization. Margie's Zenon Awards total increased to eleven at the 18th Zenon Awards Ceremonies when she was presented with a Zenon Awards for her work as a Producer for Kathy MacNeill and Frank Oberhausen's reprise of Brigadoon in March, 2003.

Margie has also contributed to the government of HLT by holding various offices five different times. She has served as an officer of the association in three different capacities: She was Vice President twice, in 1994 and 1995; President for one term from 1995 - 1996; and been on the Board of Directors from 1996 - 1998 and again in 2000-2001.

Since her work as Producer for Brigadoon in 2003, Margie has made another rare stage appearance as a member of the chorus in Frank Oberhausen's Thirty-first Season opener, The Music Man. She also served as the Assistant Director and Co-Producer of Kathy MacNeill's circus musical Barnum in March, 2005. Mrs. Pollard received the only non-Cabaret play Zenon Award at the Twentieth Zenon Ceremonies in early October for her service as Assistant Director of The Music Man, which now ties her with Helen Curcio in sixth place as a member who has received twelve Zenon Awards. Congratulations Margie!

Margie Pollard may be an unknown face to many patrons of HLT, but to those that really know her and realize how much she has contributed, she is truly a household word, house in this context, the Highlands Little Theatre. Margie, all of us associated with HLT appreciate your continual work and the countless hours that you have devoted to making our organization the smooth running machine that it is today. Thank you for your service in helping making superior entertainment available to everyone in Highlands County. You are an inspiration and we are all in your debt.