A class act: HART celebrates milestone, looks ahead
John Highsmith photo
It’s Sunday afternoon. And while many are either watching professional football on a glowing TV somewhere or simply trying to relax and prepare for the impending workweek, an array of cars put on their blinkers and pull into 250 Pigeon Street in Waynesville — home to the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre.
“I think part of being a human is chasing that feeling of being completely immersed in the moment, where time doesn’t exist and all that matters is the moment you are in with the people you are with,” said HART Artistic Director Candice Dickinson. “And you can really only know how that feels if you’ve experienced it.”
On any given Thursday, Friday or Saturday, the HART property lights up with live stage productions, most of which are sold-out affairs — a truly impressive feat for any longtime theatre company, let alone one located in the rural setting of Western North Carolina and greater Southern Appalachia.
“It takes a lot for any theatre to survive anywhere,” Dickinson emphasized. “And the fact that HART has been so loved and supported for 40 years now tells me just how important it is to our community of Waynesville, Haywood County and really Western North Carolina.
The Steve Lloyd Stage at the Haywood Arts Regional Theater. File photo
Forty years. Pretty much the same amount of time this journalist has existed. We’re talking all the way back to the Reagan Administration. Back when the Cold War was still a thing and the Berlin Wall remained intact. Forty years of countless HART performances, this endless list of participating actors that cannot be accurately gathered or even fathomed.
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“What makes HART so special?” Dickinson posed. “It’s the people. The people who make up our community and pour all of their love and dreams into our shows.”
And it all began right here in Waynesville. In the early 1980s, the community theatre was initially an extension of the Haywood County Arts Council, with many notable residents taking part in the rag-tag productions. The shows bounced around the county between the former Strand Theater on Main Street in Waynesville, Haywood Community College (HCC) and Tuscola High School.
By 1984, the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre was officially formed. Just four years later, a young Steven Lloyd, an incredibly ambitious and talented actor/director, landed in Waynesville as part of the “Visiting Artist Program” (known as the Edwin Gill Theatre Project) through the UNC system. As the representing artist for HCC in Clyde, Lloyd and his finely-tuned acting skills soon entered the realm of HART.
In 1990, with his two-year stint as part of the “Visiting Artist Program” coming to an end, Lloyd asked HART if the entity was interested in hiring him to become its executive director. With the enthusiastic green light from HART, Lloyd began building atop the bountiful and vibrant layers placed before him.
“One of the reasons I knew I could grow this theatre was because everything that I did here drew packed houses at The Strand — the support for the arts in this community was unbelievable,” Lloyd told The Smoky Mountain News in a 2022 interview.
Throughout Lloyd’s tenure as executive director, HART grew exponentially into a nationally-renowned and award-winning theatre company. First came the partnership with The Shelton House in Waynesville, which allowed HART to build its 10,000-square-foot Performing Arts Center in 1997. In 2016, the property expanded with the creation of the 9,000-square-foot Daniel & Belle Fangmeyer Theatre.
“Waynesville was much more conservative, much more provincial back when I came here 30 years ago — we brought the world to Waynesville,” Lloyd said in a 2019 interview with The Smoky Mountain News. “We brought in lots of things that 30 years ago we wouldn’t have dreamed of going anywhere close to. And the community has changed. As we’ve progressed over those 30 years, people have experienced all of those different pieces and it’s changed their thinking. This community is so much more cosmopolitan now, and it’s still a small town.”
HART productions are a beloved WNC tradition. File photo
Between the Performing Arts Center (the space now dubbed the “Steve Lloyd Stage”) and Fangmeyer Theatre, there have been hundreds of productions (estimates of over 400), whether it be with professional and community actors/directors or within the popular Kids at HART program, which offers stage opportunities to local/regional youth.
“The buildings are one thing, but the things that happened in these buildings — all the people who met each other, children who have come into this world because of those people meeting, and the shows that were done to bring people together — this theatre changed this community,” Lloyd said in 2022.
To note, Lloyd stepped down as HART executive director on New Year’s Day 2023, with Dickinson taking over the position, now referred to as artistic director. Prior to taking her current position, Dickinson had long been involved with HART in numerous ways.
“HART really does have something special. It’s something I felt when I first worked at HART 15 years ago and something I still feel today,” Dickinson said. “It comes from all the dreams that created this space, dreams of a permanent home for the arts in these beautiful mountains.”
Although Dickinson worked in theatre companies around the country and in New York City, she realized her passion resided in regional theatre, only to circle back to Western North Carolina and soon finding herself back in the trenches at HART.
“[I wanted to be] somewhere where you are part of a community and can make a difference in that community through art,” Dickinson said.
At a recent performance of “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” the sincerity and passion radiating from Dickinson was clearly evident, whether it be personally greeting any and all attendees when they enter the building to helping out behind the concessions counter when things need to be taken care of. Dickinson’s values and work ethic are only matched by the same ethos of teamwork and camaraderie exhibited by her HART colleagues.
“I have learned more about the human experience and what it means to be a leader, wife, mentor, lover [and] rebel from theatre than I have from any other part of my life,” Dickinson said.
Dickinson’s determination and purpose in upholding HART is a testament to the enduring life and ongoing legacy of the organization itself — past, present and future.
“The joy that artists feel from working at HART ripples out and we see our audience numbers grow, our donor support grow and our season audition numbers grow,” Dickinson said.
Each HART production includes a vast landscape of folks involved, from actors and directors to stage managers and set builders. Not to mention box office people and a slew of volunteers helping out around the massive facility. According to Dickinson, HART produces upwards of 20 productions each year.
“When the lights go down in the theatre, you are coming along for the ride,” Dickinson said. “And you only have one thing you can focus on for the next two hours — the story and the actors in front of you.”
Candice Dickinson (left) and Steve Lloyd (right)
Coming into the 2025 season, there’s already a full schedule of productions lined up through next November, with the stage lights to be turned back on come Jan. 24 with a kickoff performance of “An Iliad.” Regardless, what does remain is a theatre company filled with immense gratitude for its community, something only mirrored by its internal drive to always strive for greatness, onstage and off.
“If people can feel seen and heard in the space they create art, everyone feels it — the audience, volunteers, donors, staff,” Dickinson said. “HART would be nothing without its community and it is our constant goal to make sure that it is an enjoyable and supportive place to be for everyone.”
When asked about just what runs through her mind as the lights go down and the curtains open onstage each night at HART, Dickinson points to the two-way street of energy exchanged between actors and their audience — this realm of creativity, connectivity and compassion that has withstood the test of time and place in our endless universe of discovery and exploration.
“We are social beings. And when you come to the theatre for a show you are reminded of that, about how powerful we can be as humans, how capable we are,” Dickinson said. “It’s that joy and empathy and excitement that bounces from the actor to the audience and back again. It’s a feeling that everyone gets to see and feel when you attend a live performance — it’s why I believe that theatre will never die.”
Want to go?
The 2025 season at the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre will begin with a performance of “An Iliad,” which will run on select dates from Jan. 24 through Feb. 2.
Other upcoming offerings for this winter include: “Women & War,” “Valentine’s Day Cabaret,” “The Story of My Life,” “An Unexpected Song Cabaret” and “Something Rotten Jr.”
File photo
As well, there will be a special live music concert, “Cool Jazz: Featuring Alfredo Rodriguez,” taking place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30.
For more information, a full schedule of stage productions for the entire 2025 season and/or to purchase tickets, click on harttheatre.org or call 828.456.6322. You can also email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
