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Rocky Hock Playhouse moving to Washington
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By MIKE VOSS
Contributing Editor
One of eastern North Carolina’s top family friendly entertainment venues is moving to Washington next year.
Rocky Hock Playhouse will be housed on the former Washington High School campus in Washington as of January 2009. Currently, Rocky Hock Playhouse is located in Rocky Hock, just north of Edenton in Chowan County. Rocky Hock Playhouse is known for its religious-themed shows and performances. Rocky Hock Playhouse is operated by Emmerich Theatre Production Co.
With attendance at the Christian theater declining since 2003, Jeff and Gloria Emmerich were looking in the Tideland area of Virginia for a new home for the playhouse because many of its patrons over the years came from that area. Instead, the Emmerichs said, God has different plans for them and Rocky Hock Playhouse.
Since opening its doors in December 2000, the theater has attracted 170,000 patrons. It’s also attracted actors from 26 states. The theater traces its roots to a summer theater at Nags Head in 1997, Jeff Emmerich said Sunday during a telephone interview.
The move to Washington means changes, except for at least one thing, he said.
“We’re keeping the name,” Emmerich said.
Moving the theater to a new home wasn’t going to be easy, physically and emotionally, Emmerich said. The Emmerichs thought that move would be to the Tidewater area.
“We were open to anything. ... Nothing opened up there,” Emmerich said.
The search for a new home for the playhouse was exhaustive.
“We received dozens and dozens of ‘suggestions’ as to where the theatre’s new home should be. I followed every single lead and made some interesting discoveries. Many of you gave us the name of a theatre that was underused or rarely used,” Emmerich wrote in an e-mail he sent out to announce the theater is moving. “The reasonably priced ones had issues with seating and/or poor restroom facilities. Most charged as much OR MORE for daily usage as we currently pay per month. Clearly, our skinny budget could not wrap itself around that concept!!”
The remodeled auditorium at the former Washington High School will seat at least 1,000 people, according to Emmerich. Not only with the theater have more seating capacity, it will have amenities such as dressing rooms, a full-size stage, box office and catwalks above the stage. There’s plenty of room to grow, Emmerich said.
For a time, it looked like the theater would remain in Chowan County.
“The town of Edenton really went to work on our behalf and the Ruritan Club even agreed to reduce our rent. We were nearly resigned to settle for the reduced rent and try to ride out the current economic ‘situation’ in the country ... but then we received a phone call,” Emmerich wrote in the e-mail. “Just one month ago, Tim and Angie Hardison in Washington called (out of the blue, mind you!). It turns out that several years ago they purchased what was previously the Washington High School complex. The theatre is sitting empty and to quote Tim, ‘We just want something GOOD to happen here.’”
“We’d like to change that building the best we could as far as bringing good, wholesome things to the community,” Tim Hardison said about offering the former WHS auditorium to the Emmerichs.
Emmerich said Washington and Rocky Hock Playhouse should be a good fit for each other. The theater will complement what’s already a strong arts community in the Washington area, he said. The theater will benefit from Washington being a tourism hub in the region. Moving the theater to Washington puts it closer to Greenville and Raleigh, and still within reasonable driving time from the Tidewater area, Emmerich said.
Because it will be close to East Carolina University and its theater department, the theater should find it easier to recruit local actors, Emmerich said.
“It will open up some new territory for us,” he said.
“Washington is a more central location,” Hardison said about why he believes the move will benefit the theater. “They (the Emmerichs) get many of their (patrons) from Washington, New Bern and Greenville.”
The Emmerichs are scheduled to meet with representatives of the Washington/Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday. That meeting, in part, is designed to inform the Emmerichs about what the area has to offer and the chamber about what Rocky Hock Playhouse has to offer.
“I’m going to go study Washington,” Emmerich said.
In addition to Emmerichs moving to Washington, some familiar Rocky Hock Playhouse faces — Holly Emmerich (the Emmerichs’ daughter), Darryl Stallings and Lisa Walker — will remain with the troupe. The theater’s yearly lineup of four shows will be joined by the addition of a children’s show in fall 2009.
The former Washington High School campus has a commercial kitchen, providing the possibility for dinner theater.
An Easter musical is slated to be the first show at the theater’s new home in Washington. That show will run in March and April.
“For years Gloria and I have wondered if Edenton was really the ‘end of the line’ for us. Or, if some day the Lord would provide us with a larger more modern facility. Well, trust me ... HE HAS. This is a bold step. But, we WON’T spit in God’s face! Gloria and I tried to ‘force’ a door open in the Tidewater area ... but God chose to open a door somewhere else. Clearly HE has something rather remarkable in mind,” Emmerich wrote in the e-mail.
One of eastern North Carolina’s top family friendly entertainment venues is moving to Washington next year.
Rocky Hock Playhouse will be housed on the former Washington High School campus in Washington as of January 2009. Currently, Rocky Hock Playhouse is located in Rocky Hock, just north of Edenton in Chowan County. Rocky Hock Playhouse is known for its religious-themed shows and performances. Rocky Hock Playhouse is operated by Emmerich Theatre Production Co.
With attendance at the Christian theater declining since 2003, Jeff and Gloria Emmerich were looking in the Tideland area of Virginia for a new home for the playhouse because many of its patrons over the years came from that area. Instead, the Emmerichs said, God has different plans for them and Rocky Hock Playhouse.
Since opening its doors in December 2000, the theater has attracted 170,000 patrons. It’s also attracted actors from 26 states. The theater traces its roots to a summer theater at Nags Head in 1997, Jeff Emmerich said Sunday during a telephone interview.
The move to Washington means changes, except for at least one thing, he said.
“We’re keeping the name,” Emmerich said.
Moving the theater to a new home wasn’t going to be easy, physically and emotionally, Emmerich said. The Emmerichs thought that move would be to the Tidewater area.
“We were open to anything. ... Nothing opened up there,” Emmerich said.
The search for a new home for the playhouse was exhaustive.
“We received dozens and dozens of ‘suggestions’ as to where the theatre’s new home should be. I followed every single lead and made some interesting discoveries. Many of you gave us the name of a theatre that was underused or rarely used,” Emmerich wrote in an e-mail he sent out to announce the theater is moving. “The reasonably priced ones had issues with seating and/or poor restroom facilities. Most charged as much OR MORE for daily usage as we currently pay per month. Clearly, our skinny budget could not wrap itself around that concept!!”
The remodeled auditorium at the former Washington High School will seat at least 1,000 people, according to Emmerich. Not only with the theater have more seating capacity, it will have amenities such as dressing rooms, a full-size stage, box office and catwalks above the stage. There’s plenty of room to grow, Emmerich said.
For a time, it looked like the theater would remain in Chowan County.
“The town of Edenton really went to work on our behalf and the Ruritan Club even agreed to reduce our rent. We were nearly resigned to settle for the reduced rent and try to ride out the current economic ‘situation’ in the country ... but then we received a phone call,” Emmerich wrote in the e-mail. “Just one month ago, Tim and Angie Hardison in Washington called (out of the blue, mind you!). It turns out that several years ago they purchased what was previously the Washington High School complex. The theatre is sitting empty and to quote Tim, ‘We just want something GOOD to happen here.’”
“We’d like to change that building the best we could as far as bringing good, wholesome things to the community,” Tim Hardison said about offering the former WHS auditorium to the Emmerichs.
Emmerich said Washington and Rocky Hock Playhouse should be a good fit for each other. The theater will complement what’s already a strong arts community in the Washington area, he said. The theater will benefit from Washington being a tourism hub in the region. Moving the theater to Washington puts it closer to Greenville and Raleigh, and still within reasonable driving time from the Tidewater area, Emmerich said.
Because it will be close to East Carolina University and its theater department, the theater should find it easier to recruit local actors, Emmerich said.
“It will open up some new territory for us,” he said.
“Washington is a more central location,” Hardison said about why he believes the move will benefit the theater. “They (the Emmerichs) get many of their (patrons) from Washington, New Bern and Greenville.”
The Emmerichs are scheduled to meet with representatives of the Washington/Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday. That meeting, in part, is designed to inform the Emmerichs about what the area has to offer and the chamber about what Rocky Hock Playhouse has to offer.
“I’m going to go study Washington,” Emmerich said.
In addition to Emmerichs moving to Washington, some familiar Rocky Hock Playhouse faces — Holly Emmerich (the Emmerichs’ daughter), Darryl Stallings and Lisa Walker — will remain with the troupe. The theater’s yearly lineup of four shows will be joined by the addition of a children’s show in fall 2009.
The former Washington High School campus has a commercial kitchen, providing the possibility for dinner theater.
An Easter musical is slated to be the first show at the theater’s new home in Washington. That show will run in March and April.
“For years Gloria and I have wondered if Edenton was really the ‘end of the line’ for us. Or, if some day the Lord would provide us with a larger more modern facility. Well, trust me ... HE HAS. This is a bold step. But, we WON’T spit in God’s face! Gloria and I tried to ‘force’ a door open in the Tidewater area ... but God chose to open a door somewhere else. Clearly HE has something rather remarkable in mind,” Emmerich wrote in the e-mail.
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tunne rat wrote on Jul 6, 2009 8:55 PM:
that is the biggest propganda word that every came out of butterfields and rino jones mouth in the past hundred years .
just 2 water boys for the obama socalist party , and a hand full of red necks that dont have a clue about whast they are talking about . "