Volunteer profile:
Tom Coatsworth – Life Member
Tom’s first Theatre Kent experience was in 1978 when he joined the cast of “You Can’t Take It With You.” He wasn’t sure how his farming background was going to help him, but he decided that farming and writing weren’t getting him the social experience he longed to have. Theatre seemed like a good place to get him away from the black page or the onion field.
He had never done any theatre before and he thought he was destined to work backstage. He recalls that delivering two lines in the show changed his mind and the acting bug bit him hard. In the show, his castmate, Liz Repuski had a desk, typewriter and an actual cat as a paperweight. (It was in the script!) Someone decided that drugging the cat was a good way to get it stay in place, but waited until opening night to test the theory. Not only did the cat not stay in place, it wandered through the audience yowling.
Not only did the cat not scare Tom away, but it also encouraged his co-star, Glen Turner, to stick around. Tom’s early dream was to get a show to festival. Glen made Tom’s dream come true with “On Golden Pond” in 1984. He got to further bring this dream home in 2011 with “The Night of the Iguana,” which he directed. Together with Robin Holt, Tom and he celebrated the Outstanding Tech Achievement award. ‘Iguana’ was also nominated for best show and various other acting awards. Three decades after first realizing the dream of taking a show to festival Tom got to go with a fabulous cast and all but win the tournament.
Tom’s contributions to TK are seemingly endless. His favourite roles include: Charles in “Blythe Spirit,” Treves in “Elephant Man,” John Proctor in “The Crucible” (or Mount Proctor as he came to refer to it — “it wasn’t King Lear but it was close enough”), Starbuck in “The RainMaker” and Arnall in ‘Line’. He celebrates many great directing opportunities as well with “The Night of The Iguana”; “Having Hope At Home”; “Gwendoline,” and Jake’s Women being his favourites. These are just a few of his involvements over the past 40 years.
Tom is a man of many talents on and off the stage, but his greatest accolades have come from his set designs. His favourite set was the one for which he created an arched church window. It was for “Doubt”, which went on to win festival and go on to Theatre Ontario. Tom’s favourite part of each night of working on the window was the last half hour where the large group of volunteers would share wine and finger foods.
Most recently, Tom worked on the “Barefoot in the Park” set and before this, the “Anne of Green Gables” set. Not only is set painting his favourite part, but he believes it’s the most important part. Unfortunately, it is also the part that gets rushed at the very end and sometimes isn’t fully finished.
Tom is currently working on writing a book in his down time. He’s been working on it for a long time and owes his perseverance to his TK experiences. They’ve taught him to stick with it and never stop learning because you just might get there.