Meet Our Founder
I have always enjoyed performing. As a child, my mother helped with a local children’s theater program, and all of her children—my twin sister, my older brother, and I—performed. My first role was as a court page in Rumpelstiltskin, alongside my sister, while my brother played the title role. My first big role was the Wolf in a fractured fairy tale play, and I had to work hard to convince the director that a girl could play the part. My sister and I also took dance classes, both ballet and tap, but that didn’t last too long, as it really wasn’t our ‘thing’. In high school, I toured with a troupe that performed at various venues, mostly senior living homes.
I didn’t have many opportunities for theater during college or for quite some time afterward, as I was focused on teaching, but the performing bug never really left me. After all, a teacher has to know how to perform to keep students engaged. Reader’s Theater, plays, and musicals centered around different subject areas helped keep my love for performing and theater alive, while also allowing me to introduce that love to my students.In the early 2000s, I attended a performance of The Sound of Music at Playhouse Merced with my daughter. As I watched, I was struck by the thought that I could do that, and I vowed to
give it a try. For my first-ever audition, I made it to the parking lot—and then left. It had been years, and my confidence clearly needed some work. I tried again, auditioning for Little Women with the simple goal of getting in the door, singing, and getting out without dying of embarrassment. I was genuinely surprised to land the role of Mrs. Kirk.
I quickly caught the community theater bug and began auditioning more and more, building confidence as I became part of a wonderful theater family. The social aspect of being involved in theater was unexpected and became very important to me as I moved from smaller roles to larger ones, and eventually learned about stage management. That, in turn, opened even more opportunities for me, both at Playhouse Merced and with Merced ShakespearFest.
Having never been very popular growing up and always feeling like a bit of an outsider, the depth of connection and community I felt while doing theater became something very special for me. I learned how to direct a play and directed my first play with Merced Born and Raised which were One Acts written by community members. Then I directed a mainstage play for Playhouse Merced, “Wait Until Dark”. Every opportunity brought me joy.
And now, I’m building my own production company to help bring that love of performing and that joy of community to others. Merced is a wonderful community with wonderful people in it and I’m glad to be a part of making it an even better place for people to enjoy.
Sandra and her siblings
getting their start in performing arts
Why We Do What We Do
The idea of starting up a production company came from my experiences of being a part of a wonderful theater community with Playhouse Merced. I knew there were opportunities to widen that community to include more people. I also was approaching retirement and I felt I needed to enter that stage of my life with something meaningful to do.
Around this same time, my family and I were dealing with taking care of my mother, who was dealing with some rather difficult challenges. Mom was the one who got us all into performing and story telling. She was a dancer. She did ballroom dancing competitively and she just shined whenever she was dancing. She built a community of dancer friends around her and that was her biggest joy. But then, she lost the use of
Sandra's mother, Elizabeth Fackler, doing what made her shine
her legs and slowly began to just see her world get smaller and smaller. She never lost her cheerfulness or her sense of humor, but she did lose her community and without her ability to perform and dance, she lost a big part of herself. As she also lost her ability to communicate, I just saw her world shrink and her courage to find joy in even this situation, although admirable, was hard for her to keep up at times.
Visiting her at her residences, I could see that there were a lot of people who were struggling with remaining engaged. And whenever there was a musical performance, my mom would light up. They once even had a dancer who ‘danced’ with her in her wheelchair. Those moments made me realize how important performance and engagement is for everyone, at every stage of life.
Loneliness is the biggest epidemic among our senior population. Now that I’ve retired, I’ve experienced first hand how easy it is to just fall into a routine that keeps one isolated. We all need something that gets us motivated. And we need to keep engaged, physically, mentally, and socially. I’m using the power of community theater to bring people together, get out of their spaces and join in to create. As the program grows, I hope to reach more and more of our seniors and bring them out into our community.
I dedicate this program to my mom.
