About the Port Angeles Community Players (PACP)
Since 1952, the dedicated volunteers of the Port Angeles Community Players have presented a great variety of stage productions for the enjoyment of the community. Through dedicated community effort, the Port Angeles Community Playhouse, located on Lauridsen Blvd., became a reality in 1971.
We have celebrated theater by staging over 350 musicals, comedies and dramas for more than 100,000 patrons. Productions have involved hundreds of community members as actors, directors, set designers, stage crews, ushers, graphic designers, box office personnel and other vital jobs. If you're interested in being a part of the excitement of live theatre, then there's a place for you at PACP. We always need help, skilled and other: ushering, painting, building, sewing, cleaning, greeting and more--even bee-keeping and architectural design. If any of this intrigues you, please call us at 360-452-6651.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President: Kathleen Balducci
Kathy has been a member of PACP since 1970. For the past 25 years, she and her late husband Bal have been leaders, both in the community and with the Players: directing and acting in more than 50 productions, responsible for wardrobe and sets, and working at every possible nitty-gritty level. The love of theater was passed to her twin sons, who are professional stagehands in Seattle. Kathy is also a member of the Port Angeles Symphony Board of Directors.
Vice-President: Kate Carter
Kate joined the Players in 2006, shortly after moving from Portland, OR. Theater has been a part of her life since her first role in a high school production of You Can't Take It With You. She was an active member of a college theatre society at North Dakota State School of Science. Kate has acted and worked behind the scenes with community theater groups in Colorado and Oregon. Kate has acted in several PACP Main Stage and Second Stage productions. She enjoys both on- and back-stage work: so much fun to be had and interesting people to meet!
Secretary: BJ Kavanaugh
BJ’s earliest memory as a thespian is uttering four words of dialogue as the Ghost in the Scottish Play (Macbeth) in sixth grade, and by high school, she was hooked. For fifteen years, she has been an integral part of PACP as actor and much more. She is the “send-out guru” (Head Reference Technical Specialist) at Olympic Memorial Hospital. She is married to Ross (see below).
Treasurer: Barbara Frederick
Actor, Director, Past-President, Publicity—Barb has performed every role imaginable with the Players. She directed My Three Angels, Arsenic and Old Lace, and The Matchmaker in recent years. She has impeccable community connections as the Director of the Downtown Port Angeles Association.
Nancy Beier:
Nancy had a thirty-year international career as an opera and Broadway performer. She has appeared in numerous Port Angeles Light Opera Association and Community Players productions, and directed Man of LaMancha and Damn Yankees at the playhouse. Nancy is a native Texan who studied at the Boston Academy of Music, and coached with the late Wolfgang Vacano.
Buff Hirko:
For the past three years, Buff has designed posters, programs, and other publicity materials for PACP. (Blame her for this web site.) She was Assistant to the Director of Gig Harbor’s Performance Circle, sadly long gone. A recent member of the Port Angeles Friends of the Library Board, she also volunteers at the Audubon Dungeness River Center, and writes mystery novels (unpublished) in an odd corner of her life.
Ross Kavanaugh:
Ross was enticed into the Port Angeles Community Players by Bal and Kathy Balducci, and has worked on dozens of sets since. He’s the Head of the Shop at PACP, overseeing every aspect of design and construction of sets. And he acts in productions, too!
Nella Lee:
Nella has worked in community theaters for many years, and currently helps with costuming and sets—building, painting, or whatever is needed. She recalls playing the “Saloon Hussy” in Dead Eye Dick long ago in Kansas. A two-year resident of Port Angeles, her professional expertise is in Criminal Justice, having been an associate professor at Washington State and Oregon State universities.
Max Mania:
Max grew up in the theater-heavy town of Ashland, OR. Since moving to P.A. in 2006 with his wife, Dr. Dale Holiday, Max has acted in PACP plays, as well as written and directed Second Stage productions. Not only does he serve on the Port Angeles Arts Council, his life is further complicated by being a member of the Port Angeles City Council. He cites the Ramones, Jack Benny and Robert Benchley as influences, and is inordinately fond of Dean Martin.
Ann Martin:
Ann moved from Pennsylvania to P.A. in early 1974 and joined the PACP in 1978. She learned props from the 'pro' Trinka Otto during the first play her husband Paul was in, Hotel Paradiso. For numerous other plays—and for many years—she worked with props. Now retired, she can devote more time to her family and is looking forward to increased involvement with the PACP.
Gary McLaughlin:
Gary has been involved with the Players for almost 40 years--as an actor in more than 30 shows, a director of nearly 20 shows, and a light and sound technician of too many shows to count. He served on the North Olympic Library Board of Trustees and on the Clallam County Planning Commission, both for periods of ten years. He currently is a volunteer with the Master Gardener Program.
Daphne Raymond:
Daphne is a long-time PACP member, director and actress.
Marilyn Welch:
Marilyn acted in the first production in PACP’s current building in 1971, The Skin of Our Teeth, and directed that same play 20 years later. She loves her many roles in both comedies and dramas, and is proud to have directed All My Sons and Inherit the Wind. She and real-life sister Jan Yates notably starred as the charming, plotting sisters in the 2008 production of Arsenic and Old Lace.