Sometimes fate demands a curtain call.
The cast from the first play ever staged by the Chattanooga Little Theatre - the precursor to today's Chattanooga Theatre Centre - is memorialized in a 1924 black-and-white photograph that was plucked from a dumpster 70 years later.
As the story goes, a young carpenter, James Bivens, found the vintage photo in a rubbish container during building renovation work at the theater in 1994, and years later - 2017 to be exact - he rediscovered the matted photo at his house and brought it to the theater.
Julie Van Valkenburg, the marketing director at the CTC, remembers the day Bivens arrived with the treasure, which pictures the local cast of "Dear Me," a comedy that first played on Broadway in 1921. In that era, Little Theatre productions were staged at a former fire hall on Eighth Street.
"He (Bivens) is a bit of a hero to us," Van Valkenburg said. "I remember the first staff meeting we had after the photo was discovered, everybody was enthralled and delighted. People ate it up.
Contributed Photo from Chattanooga Theatre Centre / Julie Van Valkenburg, marketing director at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre, said she kept the original mat when she framed the vintage photo depicting the cast of the organization's first production in 1924. "The mat shows a good deal of wear … but I had it [all] framed in a shadow box, because the mat is just as cool as the photo." Notes on the mat record the dates of the show, the fact that it was the theater's first show ("Dear Me") and signatures of the members of the cast."Obviously, we're proud of our history, and to have a 96-year-old photo in our possession - one that captures the first people to bring great theater to our stage and to the community - is a thrill," Van Valkenburg added.
She immediately placed the photo in a shadowbox and hung it in the lobby of the theater, which will celebrate the centennial of its charter in 2023. The 1924 photograph notes that "Dear Me" debuted here 96 years ago this week.
Meanwhile, the Theatre Centre is trying to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic while looking ahead to a 2020-21 season it hopes to launch in September with a lavish production of the "Sound of Music." (See related story for the full lineup.)
Mitch Collins, CTC board president, said, "I am incredibly excited about our upcoming 2020-2021 season. Theatre is inherently a shared experience, so bringing our productions back into the lives of those who have been isolated is a joy."
The CTC produces 15 shows a year, which are seen by a collective audience of about 50,0000. It is billed as one of the "oldest, largest and busiest" community theaters in the United States.
CTC leaders still hope to salvage shows that were in production when theaters were shut down last month as part of efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The coronavirus has understandably disrupted CTC's 2020 spring schedule, but Van Valkenburg says there are still hopes of salvaging some or all of the shows. Two productions, "The Hollow" by Agatha Christie and "Barefoot in the Park" by Neil Simon, were both in rehearsal when theaters closed last month. They may instead be staged this summer. The CTC may also try to wedge in productions of "Dream Girls" and "Momma Mia," this summer, Van Valkenburg said.
When the theater does reopen, CTC leaders say they will follow CDC guidelines on social distancing which will include extra cleaning measures and selling fewer than half of the seats available to each performance so people can spread out. The larger theater at the CTC seats 380 people, and a smaller theater seats 175.
"'We don't want to be irresponsible; we want to do what's right," Van Valkenburg said. "We need to be sensitive and smart."
Email Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com.