ROCKINGHAM — After several years in front of the stage, Merrie Dawkins is stepping away from the director position of the Richmond Community Theatre.
Dawkins was recognized for her contributions by the Rockingham City Council during its June meeting.
The very first time she stepped inside the theater, Dawkins said tears were streaming down her eyes and she said, “I’m home.”
During her four decades with the theater, Dawkins has been a volunteer, crew member and on-stage performer, as well as a board member.
“Merrie has done a great job …she’s been extraordinarily easy to work with,” said City Manager Monty Crump.
Dawkins told the council members that she personally appreciated each one of them for their support — “…your confidence in me, your support of me … The theater would not be here without each one of you.”
“We owe you guys a lot, we really, really do,” Dawkins continued. “We wouldn’t have a building, we wouldn’t have an assistant director, we wouldn’t have any of those things if it wasn’t for you … we recognize that and we know that.”
Dawkins said the Richmond Community Theatre is “in a unique situation” with the cooperation between the City Council, theater board and director.
“Without all three of us working together, the theater’s not going to be all the theater can be … in any way, shape for form,” Dawkins added. “So we all three need each other … I know there is not a person up here that doesn’t support this theater.
Dawkins went on to say that RCT is “right up there” with the top five continuously running community theaters in the state.
“I’m very proud of the work that we’ve done,” Dawkins said, including productions from three local playwrights.
Taking Dawkins’ spot in the director’s chair is Katie Collins — one of those playwrights — who recently served as president of the theater’s board.
Crump said several applicants were interviewed for the part-time position.
“Katie has a very impressive background,” Crump said. “I think she’s going to be a good successor to Merrie.”
Collins said she started writing plays while attending the University of North Carolina and her first job out of college was with RCT, hired by the board as assistant director in 2019, adding that she learned a lot under Dawkins.
In that position, Collins said she helped with costuming, filled the secretary role and “whatever I could do,” until going to graduate school in Binghamton, New York.
“I thought that’d be the end, but then the pandemic happened and everything went online and suddenly I was … doing more than I had done when I was in person,” Collins told the council.
In early 2020, just before the pandemic, the theater produced her play, “The New Twenties.”
In addition to working with RCT, Collins is the box office manager for Carolina Philharmonic in Pinehurst and house manager at Sunrise Theatre in Southern Pines. However, Collins said she plans on cutting back some in Moore County with her new role in Rockingham.
“(Merrie) really cares about this theater, and I hope to put half as much love into this theater as she has — because even half as much love as she’s put into this theater is so much.”
