Beth Watson Retires, Thurmont Thespians to End
Beth Watson is ready for her final bow, and when the curtain drops on the final performance of Footloose in the fall, the Thurmont Thespians twenty-year run will come to an end.
“It’s time,” said Watson, adding, “even if it’s going to be hard to give up something you love so much.”
Watson and her husband, Spence, moved to the Thurmont area in 1993 and formed the Thurmont Thespians a few years later. It originally began as an organization to train and inspire young actors and allow them to perform. It eventually expanded into an organization for adults that performed multiple shows each year at the Thurmont American Legion. During that time, it became a cultural staple for Thurmont.
“We both founded it, but it was his genius that got it going, not mine,” expressed Watson.
Watson retired after directing The Fantasticks in March. The performance of Footloose in the fall will be directed by Rosalyn Smaldone, who actually came up through the Thurmont Thespians program, learning her skills first in the children’s workshops, then as an actor with the group, and now finally as a director.
“I think it speaks well for the program that our last production is directed by someone who came through our program,” Watson said.
When Footloose closes, so will the Thurmont Thespians. It will be the sixty-fifth performance staged by the theater group.
“I’m really proud that we produced three original musicals over the years,” Watson said. This includes a play about autism that actually went on tour to Washington, D.C.
Although Watson still loves the stage, she is eighty-one years old and feels it is time to quit. Also, she points out that managing the group has been a heavier burden to run since Spence died in 2014.
Watson’s love of the stage is not surprising. She and Spence met onstage playing opposite each other in a dinner theater in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1980. They were married thirty years.
Out of the sixty-five shows the Thurmont Thespians have performed, her favorite production is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which they produced in the middle of the summer. She knew the author of the book and was able to tie in author events with the performances.
She has acted in, as well as directed, shows. She has even been able to perform with family. She and Spence acted together in Gin Game and Love Letters, and she performed with her daughter in Grace and Glorie.
Her main goal with the Thurmont Thespians, though, has always been to teach children to love the theater.
“I love the theater, and I think it teaches kids a lot,” Watson said. “The Thurmont Thespians was also able to provide something they couldn’t get in school.” She estimates that approximately three hundred children have attended the summer workshops for children held every year. Some children came back summer after summer and fell in love with the theater. Others only attended one summer and decided that it wasn’t for them.
However, keeping the program running requires a lot of time and effort. It also requires a lot of fundraising, which she never liked doing.
Once she retires, Watson said the first thing she is going to do is rest and relax.
Nathan Kopit, Emily Cofer, Beth Watson, and Rachel Johnson. Nathan, Emily, and Rachel participated in the Thurmont Thespians summer program and had lead roles in the adult production of The Fantasticks in March 2016. Emily and Rachel were both in productions as preschoolers, as they had older siblings in the program.
