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sports – it doesn’t matter if you are going to be playing in the NBA, just the fact that you worked with a team.” Harnett Regional Theatre (HRT) is a community theater, whose mission is to educate and entertain by providing high quality theatre for performers and audiences of the surrounding area. The organization, now celebrating its 40th anniversary, has entertained numerous audiences while providing a vehicle for the creative energies of countless performers. Every person who takes the HRT stage comes away from a show learning more than just their lines. “Most people can identify with a ball team, and what you learn with a ball team. With theater, you learn exactly the same type stuff,” said Rick. “You learn discipline -- discipline is the biggie. You can’t just come out here and hang out. You have a job to do, and nobody else has your job. I compare that to baseball. In baseball, if you are in right ������������ �������� ���������� ���� ������������ ���������� �������� ������ �������� �������� �������������� ������������ Here, you have a part, and that’s what you do. You have to learn that discipline. If you don’t learn it, you don’t do well, and the show suffers because of it.” HRT’s inaugural season opened in April 1977 with the play “Picnic.” “It was just a vagabond troupe,” said Rick. “They would do their shows in schools. They stored their costumes and props, what little they had, in various sites around the county.” From 1977 until 1989, they utilized minimal props and costumes, hopping from location to location, experimenting with dramas, comedies, musicals, and even dinner theatre. An unfortunate water leak at an Angier venue – one week before an opening night – led the company to move the show to the Magnolia Avenue School auditorium, where ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� “A full house was 100 people, but at least we had a home,” added Rick. HRT kept forging ahead, staging three shows a year in the intimate setting. In the late 1980s, Carmike Cinemas moved out of Stewart Theatre, on North Wilson Avenue. HRT collaborated with the Downtown Organization of Revitalization (DOOR), under the direction of Abe Elmore, to raise money and renovate the theatre. ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������- choring the organization in the heart of Downtown Dunn. �������� ���������� ���������� ������������ �������� �������������������� ������������ �������������������� ���� semi-autobiographical play by Neil Simon, performed in Theater


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