In the Spotlight: Tina Padgett

Name: tina padgett

Position: production manager, graphic design, props

Why acting? Why Shakespeare? 

performance is electric – that energy between audience/actors. you come to the show, dog tired from the day but once the exchange starts...it's exhilarating. tech – i joke that sm'ing is a more healthy outlet for my neurotic tendencies, but i love watching a production evolve over time form audition to strike.

How and why did you get involved with Hampshire Shakespeare & this production? 

i started out with hsc in '08 in AYLI as celia. after that i started sm'ing with pauline productions and other one-offs. i sm'd TN and H for hsc and though, this year, it would be a good challenge to PM (kinda of like sm'ing the season).

Tina Padgett, taking notes on a clipboard

(Photo by Bill Dwight)

What is your favorite word? vintage

What is your least favorite word? cuddle (really any words with "uddle")

What sound or noise do you love? coffee brewing

What sound or noise do you hate? static/feedback/whining

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? farmer!

What profession would you not like to do? 

corporate anything involving a suit or heels

What is your earliest memory of theater? 

first grade..ish? my family used to go on vacation every summer for a week with my cousins so there were 5 kids and 4 parents. so, i'm an aries and the oldest, so i would to "direct & choreograph" a "musical" (read: dancing/singing along into a carrot or hairbrush to footloose) that we made our 'rents watch at the end of the week. i wanted to rehearse every.day... of vacation.

Why is theatre necessary? 

i don’t think people innately tap into their own emotions and understanding of the world they live in, or see the big picture of emotions and connecting to others. i think theatre does that (or shows how it can be done). i also think aspects of theatre can be used in the most unexpected places of our lives.

Has performing Shakespeare given you any interesting insights into Shakespeare? 

mostly language related - the meter matters and cutting a script can be difficult to do with justice; and once you get used to the language, it starts to make immediate sense.

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Tina Padgett (Production Manager/Graphic Designer) now marks her 4th HSC season (H'10/TN'09/AYLI'08). Recent offstage highlights include "Scaramouche Jones", "Parallel Lives" (Pauline Productions) and "Hide & Seek" (Manhattan Rep). Previously she collaborated on multi-media performance activism in connection with Guerrilla Poets Insurgency and Poets Against The War in Philadelphia and Virginia.