{"id":2450836,"date":"2019-11-07T08:58:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T15:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=315614"},"modified":"2019-11-07T08:58:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T15:58:00","slug":"rita-hunter-the-heart-and-soul-of-aspen-community-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/rita-hunter-the-heart-and-soul-of-aspen-community-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"Rita Hunter, \u2018the heart and soul of Aspen Community Theatre\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"swift-gallery p402_hide\" readability=\"6.5787037037037\">\n<ul id=\"imageGallery-315614-685\" class=\"gallery list-unstyled\">\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/arts-at2-110719-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/arts-at2-110719-1-1024x674.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times | Rita Hunter poses for a portrait in Aspen on Friday, November 1, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\" class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10\">\n<p><strong>Rita Hunter poses for a portrait in Aspen on Friday, November 1, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)<\/strong><br \/>Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/arts-at2-110719-1-1024x674.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Rita Hunter poses for a portrait in Aspen on Friday, November 1, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/arts-at2-110719-1-1-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/arts-at2-110719-1-1-700x1024.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Aspen Times file | Rita Hunter, right, with co-producer Jody Hecht during preparations for the 2005 Aspen Community Theatre production of \" pippin. class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-0.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"10\">\n<p><strong>Rita Hunter, right, with co-producer Jody Hecht during preparations for the 2005 Aspen Community Theatre production of &#8220;Pippin.&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>Aspen Times file<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/arts-at2-110719-1-1-700x1024.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Rita Hunter, right, with co-producer Jody Hecht during preparations for the 2005 Aspen Community Theatre production of \" pippin.><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/arts-at2-110719-1-2-150x150.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/arts-at2-110719-1-2-682x1024.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Aspen Times file | Rita Hunter adjusting John Goss's costume during Aspen Community Theatre's 2012 production of \" crazy for you. class=\"h-100\" readability=\"-1.5\">\n<div class=\"caption\" readability=\"8\">\n<p><strong>Rita Hunter adjusting John Goss&#8217;s costume during Aspen Community Theatre&#8217;s 2012 production of &#8220;Crazy For You.&#8221;<\/strong><br \/>Aspen Times file<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row no-gutters h-100\">\n<div class=\"col my-auto\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/arts-at2-110719-1-2-682x1024.jpg\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" alt=\"Rita Hunter adjusting John Goss's costume during Aspen Community Theatre's 2012 production of \" crazy for you.><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"caption-toggle\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/entertainment\/rita-hunter-the-heart-and-soul-of-aspen-community-theatre\/#\" class=\"show-captions\">Show Captions<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/entertainment\/rita-hunter-the-heart-and-soul-of-aspen-community-theatre\/#\" class=\"hide-captions\">Hide Captions<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">During rehearsals for this fall\u2019s Aspen Community Theatre production of \u201c9 to 5,\u201d Rita Hunter has been at a familiar perch backstage in the scene shop overseeing costume sewing and hemming.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">But, unlike most of the community theater company\u2019s shows over the past four decades, Hunter isn\u2019t producing the musical. Diagnosed with ALS in June, Hunter is passing the torch to new leaders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cAt first I was holding onto it, like, who else is going to come in here and do all this?\u201d Hunter said over coffee at Jour de Fete. \u201cWhen we put together the team, I realized it was going to be amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">Travis Lane McDiffett, who is one of five members of a \u201cproduction committee\u201d tasked with trying to do all that Hunter did herself behind the scenes, said nobody could fill Hunter\u2019s shoes: \u201cAll these years, she has been the force behind it. You can\u2019t mention Aspen Community Theatre without Rita.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">Hunter\u2019s first show was a 1980 production of the play \u201cNightwatch.\u201d She\u2019d auditioned for the cast and when the director, Herman Edel \u2014 who also was the sitting mayor of Aspen \u2014 told her she didn\u2019t get the part, he asked her to get involved backstage.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cI said, \u2018Well, I have experience in costumes, I can sew and I could help out that way,\u2019\u201d Hunter recalled.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">The next year, she joined the board of directors and soon after started producing the shows. Since then, she\u2019s been rounding up talent to fill casts, build sets, raise curtains and man spotlights, along with organizing the sprawling details of putting on and promoting a show and fundraising year-round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cI was like, \u2018I think this is my calling, I think I can be more valuable to this community theater in that capacity than I would be onstage,\u2019\u201d Hunter said. \u201cI just ran with it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">She now fondly recalls disasters averted and the quirky bits of community theater recasting, such as when the star of \u201cAnnie\u201d in 1986 broke her leg and had to be replaced. Or when the lead in 1982\u2019s \u201cCamelot\u201d got a part on Broadway and left for New York before opening night (leaving his replacement hiding scripts onstage to keep his lines straight).<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">Hunter recalled her daughter, as a toddler, sleeping under the dressing room table at the Wheeler while mom was producing 1984\u2019s \u201cGuys and Dolls.\u201d (\u201cShe grew up thinking the Wheeler was an extension of our house.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">And she\u2019s also proud of ways the beloved local institution has done more than entertain.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">Hunter recalled the 1992 production of \u201cThe Diary of Anne Frank,\u201d for which she spearheaded a fundraising effort that allowed anyone under age 17 to see it for free and during which the company partnered with Holocaust survivors to attend and speak to local schoolchildren.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">For the 2010 production of \u201c1776,\u201d ACT again welcomed kids for free to learn about the founding fathers. (Casting all those fathers was also a memorable feat for Hunter, as pulling together a cast of 20-plus men meant convincing many first-time and only-time actors from Aspen to take the stage.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">Her final show as producer, 2018\u2019s \u201cBig River,\u201d was deeply meaningful. The \u201cHuckleberry Finn\u201d adaptation is among her favorite musicals, and she\u2019d been hoping to stage it since the mid-1980s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">Under Hunter\u2019s leadership, Aspen Community Theatre\u2019s shows have earned a reputation that belies the bungling stereotype of nonprofessional theater. With budgets ranging from $80,000 to $110,000, the annual shows have raised standards for production value and performance to a rare caliber.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cOnce you go there, you can\u2019t go back,\u201d said Hunter, a California native who moved to Aspen in 1969 and worked at the Red Onion during the 1970s ski bum heyday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cRita has been the heart and soul of Aspen Community Theatre,\u201d said boardmember and \u201c9 to 5\u201d castmember Tammy Baar, who is the only person in town who can claim a longer affiliation with the company than Hunter (as a high schooler in 1977, Baar was in the very first Aspen Community Theatre production.)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">Looking back at her memories of the theater, it\u2019s not the standing ovations or the spectacular song-and-dance numbers that stand out for Hunter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cThe essence of it is the middle word, \u2018community,\u2019\u201d Hunter said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">For many Aspenites, devoting two all-consuming months to taking a role or a backstage task has provided a transformative personal experience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cThis is something you don\u2019t forget,\u201d she said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t fade from your memory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">Hunter recalled romances and marriages sparked in the crucible of these productions. She remembered cast and crewmembers grieving loved ones or battling addiction and finding an unlikely safe haven and saving grace in Aspen Community Theatre.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">All the work this community theater does is essentially altruistic, she noted, and in the frantic build-up to opening night, strangers form lifelong bonds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cI don\u2019t know many organizations, jobs, nonprofits that have the same sort of goal where everybody involved has a very important role to make this one thing happen for someone else,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s always like, \u2018Well, it\u2019s going to be crazy but we\u2019re going to be so proud once we show this to our community.\u2019 People put everything into this and find a family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">In the months since her ALS diagnosis, as the degenerative disease has begun stiffening her hands, Hunter has focused herself on that family as well has her blood family.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cI have three families, really,\u201d she said, referring to her daughter and 5-year-old granddaughter, her Aspen Community Theatre cohort, and her friends from Pitkin County Dry Goods where she worked for 29 years. \u201cSome days I feel like I have to make the most of my time, with my theater connections, my family and my friends. Those are the things that invigorate me and can make me not dig a hole and stick my head in the sand. I\u2019m going to have life while I can have it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">And through the run of \u201c9 to 5\u201d from Nov. 8 to 16 at the Aspen District Theatre, Hunter the costume supervisor will be backstage, doing her part as she always has.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Body_Serif\">\u201cI\u2019d like to say that this doesn\u2019t have to define you,\u201d she said of living with ALS. \u201cYou can still have joy in your life and that\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Special Sections-ATW-ATW_Shirttail\"><a href=\"mailto:atravers@aspentimes.com\">atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/entertainment\/rita-hunter-the-heart-and-soul-of-aspen-community-theatre\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rita Hunter poses for a portrait in Aspen on Friday, November 1, 2019. (Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times)Kelsey Brunner\/The Aspen Times Rita Hunter, right, with co-producer Jody Hecht during preparations for the 2005 Aspen Community Theatre production of &#8220;Pippin.&#8221;Aspen Times file Rita Hunter adjusting John Goss&#8217;s costume during Aspen Community Theatre&#8217;s 2012 production of &#8220;Crazy For [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2450836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 08:17:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2450836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2450836\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2450836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2450836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2450836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}