OCT Celebrates Fifty Years

Andy Rassler • June 15, 2026

OCT Alumni (From L to R): Maggie Cooke, Ginny Holderness, Dennis Delamar, Tim Hodgin, Claudia Galup, Scott Orr, Jonathan M. Ewart, Rob Taylor, Jenny Taylor, Liza Cook Elsner, and Johnny Lazenby.


OCT Celebrates 50 Years of Rich History


The Mayor of Concord, Steve Morris, began OCT’s 50th Anniversary celebration with a proclamation: June 13, 2026 is hereby known as Old Courthouse Theatre Day. A fitting tribute to an organization who has served Concord and its surrounding area for half a century with entertainment, education, culture, and community.


The evening was a year in planning, and the culminating gala brought together long-time veterans of OCT with enthusiastic new-comers. After a brief business meeting where OCT welcomed Jonathan M. Ewart, Chris Harris-Firth, and Jean Kadela to the Board of Directors, the rest of the evening focused on memories and history. 


Intermixed with the 50th-season production awards, OCT veteran Chris Stonnell organized an impressive list of talent to remember many of the fantastic musicals the theatre has produced over the years. Highlights of the entertainment included Michael Jonathan from this season’s Company with ‘Being Alive,’ followed by numerous OCT alumni gathered on stage to deliver a mega-medley of historic musical songs.  The legendary Dan Truhitte (Rolf from The Sound of Music) made a truly special and meaningful appearance performing a medley highlighting ‘Edelweiss’ and concluding with ‘Climb Ev’ry Mountain.’ A duet from Guys and Dolls with Chris Stonnell and Jim Longwell was somehow performed across the coast, thanks to modern technology, and Lifetime Achievement Winner, Kim Baysinger, reprised a duet from ‘Pump Boys and Dinettes’ with local celebrity Beth Troutman (that performance was live). 


After careful research and work, Jonathan M. Ewart presented a particularly poignant and meaningful tribute to members of the OCT family who are no longer with us. The ‘In Memoriam’ slide show was hauntingly accompanied by the beautiful ‘No One Is Alone’ from Into the Woods.


After the presentation of Best Show for Season 50, The Foreigner, awards were handed out that were specific and special to Old Courthouse Theatre. The Wilson Family (a historic and extremely pivotal family in OCT’s history) bestowed their Volunteerism award to the Weathers family: Holly, Rick, Aiden, and Chloe. The Mary Thompson Award (named for one of the founding members who worked tirelessly backstage) was given to Jennifer Riordan and Kim Baysinger. President John Harris also awarded Chris Barcroft, Jon Kadela, and Brian Rassler with special recognition of service to the theatre.


The evening’s ceremony concluded with various members of the history of OCT singing verses of ‘Try to Remember’ from The Fantasticks as slides played showing all the rich, impressive plays and musicals OCT has produced in its 50 year history. The last image lingering over the venue was the founder, Mary Snead Boger, no doubt approving the perpetuation and fulfillment of her dream.


With the 50th ‘Golden’ Anniversary behind them, OCT now focuses on the future. Our board continues to hone in on our ten-year plan. Season 51 holds much promise, and the programming committee is already well into plans for Season 52. Our mission: To provide and increase exceptional opportunities to engage, entertain, and educate the public on the value of theatre arts. Our focus: Community.


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By Andy Rassler • May 21, 2026
You can’t go very far in just ten minutes. We’ll take that challenge! Old Courthouse Theatre will offer its Ten-Minute Play Festival on June 4-6 at 7:30pm and June 7 at 2:30pm and endeavor to take you from a church basement, to a waiting room, to an airport…and many other points of interest! A quick re-cap for people who haven’t yet experienced this fast-paced event: Eight playwrights have created eight ten-minute stories. Eight directors have envisioned how to tell these eight stories. Twenty-two characters will come to life with the skill and talent of sixteen actors to embody these eight stories. Our audiences will get four chances to experience these eight stories, all in one event, for the low price of $15. Now in its 15th season, the ten-minute play festival at OCT is a celebration of local talents: playwrights, directors, actors, and crew. It is a labor of love: ALL people connected to and working on the festival are volunteers, investing time and talent to support our theatre. It also serves as a fund-raiser for the theatre. ALL proceeds from the festival (except a small stipend we pay to reward the skill of the writers) go directly to support the myriad projects OCT is tackling, from producing plays to maintaining its 100-year-old building. Andy Rassler is the initiator and coordinator of this event, and this year she is joined by veteran directors Denise McKercher, Jonathan Ewart, and May May. In the true spirit of inviting new talent, they are joined this year by new (to OCT) directors Frank Sesta, Paul Kelley, Chris Ortiz Lopez, Freddie Harward, and Chandler Smith. Our team of actors includes: Nick Asa, Jerry Cardenas, Ciel Davis, Soliel Davis, Kelly Durden, Tabatha Johnson, Jean Kadela, Jon Kadela, Denise McKercher, Victoria Powell, Andy Rassler, Tee Sampson, Linda Smith, Melissa Stevens, Devan Thomas, Tiffany Trudewind, and Roger Watson. Our line-up this year includes: The Best Is Yet To Come by Judy Dove Delayed Departure by Pam Newcomer Everything In Between by John Mabey 50 Percent Chance by Kara Barnette Fifty Signs by Connie Dinkler A Golden Anniversary by Nicole Panteleakos The Holey Spirit by Ashade Altine Parting by Nicole Cunningham Tickets are available at www.octconcord.com or 704.788.2405. Direct Link: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=318080

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By Andy Rassler • December 19, 2025
Old Courthouse Theatre is excited to introduce its historic 51st season. Kim Baysinger, chair of the theatre's Programming Committee said at our live announcement: “The traditional anniversary gift for those experiencing their 51st year together is MARBLE. And like that coveted stone, OCT is set to gift you with a 51st season that is solidly beautiful!” After a year-long vetting, reading, and voting process, the Programming Committee sent its season recommendations to the OCT Board of Directors. For this knock-out season, the vote was unanimous. Our season opener, set in long ago France, is a swashbuckler full of action and adventure; a classic tale turned on its comedic ear by America’s preeminent comic playwright. We begin our season with Ken Ludwig’s The Three Musketeers ! What better way to enter fall with all its spooky thrills than to be mesmerized by the greatest selling novelist of all time? From the UK, a tale of murder, police, invisible ink, hidden doorways and secret drawers. OCT offers up the comedy thriller from Agatha Christie… Spider’s Web ! Our eyes look to New York City and the time of the Great Depression for our holiday show this season. On the heels of our successful last few years of holiday shows, we are leapin’-lizards-over-the-moon-a-tingle to bring you the most iconic musical of all time, Annie . Likely a new title for you, our February show comes from a writing team known for their ‘knock it out of the park’ comedies. Trust us when we say: This one is off-the-charts funny! Put together a wedding at a venue across the country, a Mama who won’t get on an airplane, and a quirky set of characters getting in a car together, and you’ve got: HILARITY. Otherwise known as Mama Won’t Fly . This is a ‘please don’t miss this one’ type of show, and we are thrilled to be producing it. We end our season with a title that just belongs on the OCT stage. It brings so much of OCT, Concord, and our mission together in one place, and when the rights became available, OCT pounced with no hesitation. The Avett Brothers started here. Their roots are here. They belong here. Their success has been a blessing for our community for years, and (for those who haven’t followed them) they recently extended their work from the concert stage to Broadway. We are absolutely awe-struck and humbled to be producing the newly-released and regional premiere of: Swept Away . It is our hope that we are offering a little something of solid beauty for everyone in our 51st season. As we continue to grow, expand, and work to serve our community, the OCT board and volunteers promise to devote all of our talents, time, and energy to producing the best versions of these plays for you, our family of supporters. See you at the theatre.