CCP Holiday Play Director Reminiscences of Childhood Christmases, Theater, Music

Kate Hinman’s love for Christmas, storytelling and theater all began when she was a kid and stepped on the stage at age 6.

“My love for the holidays comes from my family. My mom loved all holidays and decorated for all of them,” said Hinman, who has several family heirlooms for the season, including nativity pieces and an angel on her Christmas tree that were given to her at age 6.

“It is these things as well as being with my theater family that makes the holidays special,” said Hinman, of Westfield, who happened into directing Carmel Community Players’ holiday show, “Uh-Oh! Here Comes Christmas,” a collection of stories, songs and vignettes, which opens Friday and continues with performances through Dec. 18 at The Cat in Carmel.

She hopes lots of patrons will come see the show to “hear the stories, feel the feels, rediscover your part in our community, families and world.”

Hinman hadn’t thought about doing a holiday show, although she loves doing theater this time of the year. But then she answered a callout for a CCP director for the holiday slot on Facebook.

“I love Robert Fulghum’s work and asked for a script. After the third vignette, I was hooked and asked to direct it,” she said.

The play features 15 holiday stories from the international best-selling author of “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten” in storytelling and song. The show takes a funny, heartwarming look at the struggle to find the spirit of the holidays amidst all of the commercialism, stress and chaos.

“Uh-Oh! Here Comes Christmas” is “not a play in the standard presentation of a single theme, but it is individual stories told about real people in real situations that all of us can relate to,” Hinman said.

Each vignette is a story taken from Fulghum’s writings. “It brings everyone, audience, cast, crew, ushers … all into a spirit of ‘we are all in this together,’” she said. “I think the most important factor is there is no ‘fourth wall.’ The actors are speaking with, not to, the audience. In essence, the audience becomes part of the story as they relate.

Hinman said her first experience with Fulghum was his book, “Everything I Learned….” She owns several of his books “but one common thread is, “I feel his genuine point of view about life’s experiences.” She encourages everyone to read his books.

The cast is three men and two women, ages 30s to 70s: Phil, Kevin Shadle; Peggy, Tonya Rave; Dawn, Joy Ried; Nick, Tom Riddle; and Rusty, Matt Trgovac.

“From our first rehearsal, bonding started and has continued to strengthen. I think a lot of that has to do with the very structure of the show and the genuine relationships of those characters within Mr. Fulgam’s stories,” Hinman said.

Directing the show has been fun, she said, also having the show’s assistant director Jeremy Ried’s wife, Joy, in the cast. They have brought their four children, ages 2-9, to all of the rehearsals, and their 9-year-old is working as backstage crew. “I love it when theater is a family affair,” she said.

The set, creatively built by Charlie Hanover, is simple and doesn’t detract from the storytelling, “which is the star,” Hinman said, although the set allows places for entrances, is a barrier between the audience and the “behind-the-scenes” work yet suggests the time of year.

CCP rehearsed in its warehouse, where the set and decor were stored, then moved to The Cat on Sunday before this week’s opening. “This was a new experience for me,” said Hinman, who had help from a lot of seasoned crew.

Hinman’s love of show business stems back from her childhood, when she first stepped on stage at age 6 to learn tap dancing. Then in the fourth grade, she took up the flute. “Then in high school, I found drama, and a theater nerd was born,” she said. She became a techie as her first paid job was as a lighting tech in her high school auditorium which was also the civic auditorium as was the home of the local community theater group, outside programs and entertainment. “If I remember correctly, minimum wage in 1975 was something like $2.25 an hour.” She continued doing theater in college and some years later got back into it after a brief hiatus. “Theater has given me much, including my husband, Martin, who I met when he showed up in 1986 when I was director of ‘The Fantasticks.’ He got the role of the girl’s father. We did theater around central Indiana for our nearly 26 years together before his passing,” she said.

Hinman was raised in Peru, Ind., where she grew up in the Peru Circus with her alter ego, Patches the Clown. By day, she’s a social worker in the medical field, celebrating 40 years in June 2023. She graduated from Ball State University in 1982 and 1994, and moved in 2014 to Westfield, home of Main Street Productions at Basile Westfield Playhouse, where she is deeply involved.

“The joy of life makes me smile,” Hinman said. “I have so many people I call my family and friends, and I feel blessings and good fortune on a daily basis. And one constant joy has been theater.”

Contact Betsy Reason at betsy@thetimes24-7.com.