Editors's Note: The Hillsboro Herald welcomes our new contributing journalist, Charley Macorn. New to Hillsboro, Charley brings an excellent eye for the arts and culture to the Herald after spending time as a columnist at The Missoulian. Reach out to the Herald to have Charley come cover your events!
HART’s Artistic Director brings New Blood
By Charlotte Macorn, Arts & Culture Contributor to the Herald
It’s midday at Hillsboro Artists’ Regional Theater (HART). The front few rows of the theater’s 93 seats are covered in tarps, protecting them from the intermittent spray of sawdust coming from the stage. There, the board president is instructing on the art of stagecraft. His student is the volunteer-based theater’s first-ever teenage board member, one of many new faces giving their time and talents to HART. Together, the pair are in the process of transforming the pastoral Avonlea of “Anne of Green Gables” into the downstairs servants’ quarters of a Regency mansion.
Ahead in the production schedule is “The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley,”a yuletide sequel to Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and HART’s 2024 holiday offering. The season opened with “The Amazing Séance Sisters,” the all-new original production penned by local writer April Aasheim. This presently puts the theater halfway through a year marked by packed houses full of audiences made up of both long-time HART patrons and first-time visitors alike.
Hart Theatre The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley
At the center of HART’s influx of new blood is the theater’s new Artistic Director, Harrison Butler, a relative newcomer to Hillsboro. In 2022, facing an uncertain future in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the theatrical world, the longtime professional actor, director, and educator left Los Angeles to visit his sister in Hillsboro, looking for direction. At the same time, HART itself was likewise in a state of uncertainty and flux following its own pandemic struggles. Harrison Butler found his path, and HART found a new Artistic Director.
Now in the middle of a sellout 30th season, Harrison Butler is proud to look back at a time marked by unprecedented levels of sold-out shows and a newly invigorated base of talent, both on stage and behind the scenes.
We sat down with Harrison Butler to find out about the changing realities of theater post-COVID, and what the future of Hillsboro Artists’ Regional Theater looks like.
What have you learned about the arts in Hillsboro during your time here?
The main lesson that I’ve learned over the course of the brief three years that I’ve been here is that Hillsboro wants more! They want more arts, they want more culture, more things to do. I found that this first has translated to immense success for us. And over the course of the last two years, we shot up in audience and community engagement, and we’ve seen such a response from the community from how we need more arts. Obviously it’s not enough. If we’re turning people away-–we turned away from “Anne of Green of Gables” 120 people–that’s enough to fill another show. We could have built another weekend, but we just just can’t. We’ve had five shows this season that sold out their whole run. Our next show looks like it’s going to sell out as well.
Harrison Butler of Hart Theatre in Hillsboro, Oregon. Photo by Charley Macorn
What is next for HART?
This year, we staged an original production, “The Amazing Seance Sisters,” written by local writer April Aasheim. We wanted to start a precedent for doing new works in our production season. We have another new work coming up in August 2025, “Alma de Luna,” by David Fuks, a lovely piece about the migrant journey. That is not within our normal production season, but we are also looking at doing an original work in the next season also. COVID originally derailed it, so we’re railing it again.
We do special projects outside of our main stage season, one-acts, smaller projects. We’re doing the Fertile Ground Festival in April, which is a new-works fest and that’s going to be done in repertory with our main stage show “Calendar Girls.” We also partner with other organizations like Light Opera of Portland to bring one opera per year during the summer. We will actually have quite a large budget for that, and we’ll be paying all of our actors. Not only did we want to stay a community theater and stay engaged like this and give people these opportunities, we want to give them a pay raise, so we’re slowly moving in that direction.
As we are now coming up on four years post-lockdown, how are theaters bouncing back from the pandemic?
It is really tough out there. HART is not indicative of what’s going on. The pandemic hit theaters very, very hard. Theaters are still struggling to make it out of that. I do believe that we have this microcosm here in Hillsboro that has helped us bounce back a little bit. I think due to a lot of reasons, but mainly people wanting to get out there and do more. We also have people rediscovering HART. A lot of people have come through HART in the last 30 years. I’m constantly meeting people who talk about how they played a role in such and such play many years ago here. So, I think that the community is re-discovering it again in many ways and wanting to see HART living out its real potential. But all over the country, certainly in the state of Oregon, theaters are still closing and still having trouble filling seats. It’s always a struggle, but now it’s more of a struggle. HART doesn’t have the kind of overhead that professional theaters have. We are primarily a volunteer-based organization. We’re growing now, and we’re looking to use that growth to become more of a regional-based destination. We’re working together to find a way to sustain art. To do that, you have to start paying people.
Speaking of that, how is it running a volunteer-based organization?
It’s tough. People can’t afford to volunteer. The arts and culture is affected on many different levels. It’s not only people who are coming to see the art, or viewing the art, it’s also about the ability to do the art. And if you’ve got to be out there having three jobs and DoorDash all day long, you don’t have the time to volunteer for your local theater, or your local community arts organization. Not having that crucial participantship is difficult on organizations, especially such as HART. Even though HART has managed to inspire the people around us in the community to get involved, even though people are having a hard time, there’s still a hunger and a need to do it. It’s difficult and we see the stories about theaters going under.
With all of these factors, why do you think HART is bouncing back?
Why is HART doing so well? I cannot tell you. But I think it is a combination of things. I think it’s mainly due to the incredible people that are giving their time and efforts to HART. We’ve got a great team. Word has spread, now not only are we getting our local loyal fanbase from all those years, but now we’re getting people coming into town, we’re seeing it become more and more of a regional destination rather than a local one. That’s really exciting. From actors to audience, the more we bring in. You can get away from the craziness of downtown Portland and come out to Hillsboro and relax, have fun, see a show and have dinner.
Can you tell us more about your upcoming production, “The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberly?”
After the events of [the Jane Austen novel] “Pride and Prejudice,” Darcy is living with Lizzie in the big mansion, Pemberley. This production is the second in a trilogy of plays, the first being “Miss Bennett: Christmas at Pemberley,” Miss Bennett being the spinster who hasn’t found love because she’s just too smart. She meets this little nerdy guy, and they fall in love over the course of the production. Hijinks ensue, of course. That is told upstairs in the mansion’s grand hall. We staged that last year.
“The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley” happens downstairs in the servant’s quarters at the same time. We see little bits of each play in each other. They still stand alone, of course, but it’s fun to watch them in order. Lydia has Wickham for a husband, who is this cheating misogynist. He’s not in the first play, even though Lydia is a main character, where she tells everything from her perspective, being delusional about how bad the relationship is. In this year’s play, that character has been banished from the home, so he bursts in drunk to the servants’ quarters, and hijinks ensue down there.
And of course there’s a strong love story. It is Jane Austen, afterall. It’s very fun. Margot Melconare and Lauren Gunderson are the writers. Brilliant writers. They’re so good. It’s so simple, just completely capturing Jane Austen’s world. It’s Christmas fun. It takes place during a time when Christmas was still being discovered. The Europeans were turning it into their own celebration. It’s so interesting. It happens during a time when the Christmas tree has just been introduced, and everyone is wondering ‘why are they’re putting the trees inside our homes?’ So Darcy can’t understand why Lizzie has brought a tree into the house. It’s going to be a warm delight on a winter’s day.
HART Bar will be featuring a warm cocktail Rum Punch, which is featured in the show. We will feature special dress up performances, where you can dress up in your best Jane Austen-wear to the show. We’ll have free cookies for everyone that dresses up. Then on opening night we’re going to have a big red carpet opening event, which we’re doing for every opening night for this season. We ask people to dress up in elegant gowns and come get your photos taken on the red carpet.
Finally, how do people get involved with HART?
The answer is in many ways. Visit our website, where we list our volunteer opportunities. We have opportunities on how to usher, run lights, and do community outreach. We do our best to hook you up with a volunteer role. We have skilled mentors to help you with your interest. Right now, our board president is mentoring another board mentor on how to build sets. We’ve got camps coming up soon as our HART’s education wing takes off. There will be opportunities for that. If you want to be a director, and you’ve never directed anything before, you can assistant direct a show and learn how to do it.
“The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley” opens on December 7 and runs through December 22.
