ATP Spotlight Feature - Larry Hains

   

Larry Hains

There are many pathways to becoming a member of Aged To Perfection (ATP), and Traverse City native, Larry Hains, found his yellow brick road emerging from the participation of his daughters in Old Town Playhouse (OTP) shows.

“Kris was 17 when she was cast in the mainstage play Anything Goes in 1987,” Hains reports, while “Susie was 13 when she was cast in . . . Annie in 1988.” This brought him into the whirlwind of activity that is OTP and introduced him to volunteering in a theatrical environment. “I started with being an usher and that led to serving as House Manager for about ten years,” said Hains, adding that he also worked in the box office, on the OTP newsletter, and with the set construction crew. He certainly kept himself busy and was recognized in 1994 with the inaugural OTP Volunteer Of The Year Award.

It was probably inevitable that Hains would be drawn into acting along the way, and he got his start with the Studio Theatre. Hains had long said that he had no desire to be on stage, and was more than content with responsibilities behind the scenes. When Shiawassee County Seat was scheduled to premier as a studio production, however, Hains made an offhand comment to someone that this “was a play I could see myself in if I was ever to be on stage.” The next day, he received a call from the director, offering Hains a special audition for the show. He got the part. Thus began a ‘career’ on the stage which extended from the Studio Theatre to the MainStage at OTP. This included productions such as Fiddler on the Roof, The Sound of Music, Over the River and Through the Woods, Guys And Dolls, Camelot, Annie, and Arsenic and Old Lace among others as he was featured in both support and leading roles.

It should not be surprising that when a senior readers theatre was proposed at OTP in 2012—a group that became Aged To Perfection—Hains showed up for the first meeting along with stalwarts like Phil Murphy, Barbara Goodearl, Sue Austin and Margaret Anne Slawson. Hains recalls, “I really enjoyed that we were doing this strictly for fun . . . if you wanted to try your hand at acting or directing, you could do it.” In fact, as he looks toward the future of ATP, he thinks the most important thing to preserve is, “People doing what they enjoy and enjoying what they do.”
In 2024, Hains was recognized once again for many of the things he had enjoyed along the way. He was inducted into OTP’s  Hall Of Fame—an honor reserved for those with at least ten years of longevity in the group and contributions in multiple specialties.

So now that Hains has earned the highest honor bestowed at the Playhouse, what keeps him coming back for more?  “The pay check,” he joked. Actually, it is his love of the camaraderie that shines through all of his remembrances.