West Side Civic Theatre

Our own Samantha Driver, who all WSCT faithful will remember as Belle in Disney's Beauty and the Beast and Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz will be attending Boston Conservatory to obtain her Master's of Music in Musical Theatre this coming fall. Samantha was also recently featured as Kate Keller in The Miracle Worker with CPCC Theater Productions, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Mabel in Pirates of Penzance, and Antigone in Antigone. Samantha would like to thank her dear family and friends at the West Side Civic Theatre for their support, love, hard work and dedication to the company throughout the years, and for assisting her in reaching her highest of dreams. You will forever be in my heart!

Jim Ballard - Jim is currently performing in his second season with Blowing Rock Stage Company where he just finished a 4 week run of the hilarious Leading Ladies by Ken Ludwig and is currently playing Hook in Peter Pan. This past year he starred in the fall as Officer Lockstock in Urinetown at Actor's Playhouse on Miracle Mile in Miami for which he received the 2007 South Florida Professional Theatre/Carbonell Award for best Supporting Actor in a Musical. Next was Funny Girl at the New Vista Theatre in Boca Raton where he played Nick Arnstein. The winter and spring consisted of some new one act plays with the Inside Out Theatre in Ft. Lauderdale and Tuesdays with Morrie at the Caldwell Theatre in Boca. He is very excited with the amount of professional Equity theatre in South Florida but looks forward to the summer where he can come back up to his home state of NC (and hopefully perform with the West Side Civic Theatre again sometime soon!!)

Our Director John S. Rushton was recently named to the Events Committee for PEACE Fund International. PEACE stands for Protect, Educate and Aid Children Everywhere and was founded by film and television star, Adrian Paul, who also serves as its President. John starred as Adrian’s partner, Bradley in last year’s feature film, Eyeborgs and the two have become good friends dedicated to the same causes. John considers it “a distinct honor to be chosen to be part of this dedicated and passionate organization.”

John was also named as a member of the Board of Visitors for Salem Academy and College for a 3 year term. John commented on his appointment, “It is wonderful to be an integral part of the planning and decision making for an institution I consider vital to our area, and one I care deeply about.”