Patrick Erhardt seems to have packed a lot of acting, directing and living into his 74 years.Now he’s ready for more adventures. Artistic Director of Valerie Players, Erhardt part of his day job directing his one of a group that helped breathe new life into his 95-year-old theater in downtown Inverness away from
Renovated in 2015, the theater is a popular venue for theater, dance, traveling performances and films. Erhardt and Valerie Players, the first theater company based in Valery, have contributed to the theater’s success.
Erhardt “has seemingly endless creativity,” says Sue Whitney, founding member of Valerie Players. “His job is why we are here,” she said.
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Erhardt will continue to perform some of the marketing and other tasks for Players, but said he expects Valerie Players’ board of directors to name a new artistic director on October 19.
Erhardt led Valerie Players through its first full season of theater productions in 2021-2022, including serious plays, comedies, dramas and musicals about 9/11. And the 10-Minute Play Festival he recently produced featured eight of his plays by local authors. He even taught a playwriting class to help develop some of his works.
But now he’s off to the playwriting classes he’s taking, traveling to see friends and relatives, and doing tasks he’s been putting off, like “removing some doors and painting the kitchen.” doing.
He also hopes to develop a play based on “a wonderful handwritten letter my father wrote.”
However, it is unlikely that Erhardt’s semi-hiatus from the theater will last long.
Erhardt estimates that he has performed about 500 times as an actor since he started making music in high school in Lakewood, Ohio.
He attended theater at Holy Cross College in Notre Dame, Indiana, and then spent part of his job at a company that oversaw newsstand distribution of consumer magazines. Erhardt was eventually appointed Assistant Director of Marketing and Trade Shows and lived in New Jersey.
After the divorce, Erhardt became a licensed insurance agent in Delaware and continued his work installing card displays for Hallmark Card. He was president of the local Delaware Chamber of Commerce and Insurance Group. However, wherever he lived, Erhardt sought out local theater companies.
Although he was not formally trained as an actor or director, he says he learned on the job.
He played for the Second Street Players of Milford, Delaware and the Possum Point Players of Georgetown, Delaware.
Eventually, Erhardt turned south. His daughter, Gillian Benz, lives in Inverness. Er-hardt arrived at Fort Her Myers, where he attended the Florida Laboratory Theater. When he decided to move to Inverness, he heard about auditioning at his Center for the Arts in Citrus County. He had a role as a nosy landlord in The Arts Center’s production of Love, Sex, and the IRS before settling fully in Inverness.
Valerie Players was born after reading a letter from Inverness City Manager Eric Williams to the Citrus County Chronicle in the summer of 2020.
In his letter, Williams tells us that the Valerie Theater is underutilized. Erhardt emailed his Williams some ideas. Among them was that the theater company might help fill the seats. Williams asked if Erhardt would meet with him. Erhardt did so, he brought a PowerPoint presentation.
Before Erhardt finished a third of the slideshow, Williams asked him, “When can we start?” Earhart said.
After serving as a choral music teacher, principal, and principal in New York State, Erhardt formed the non-profit Valerie Players Commission with Inverness City Council members Linda Vega and Whitney, who are active in local theater. .
And the Valerie Players took off but were held back by the pandemic.
By the fall of 2020, Erhardt had assembled a group of actors who had a live radio show, followed by “A Christmas Carol.”
The board has been expanded for 2021.
And by the fall of 2021, the Valerie Players will be ready for their first full season.
What did Erhardt learn from that season?
He said he knows more about the show’s production, including how to do internet marketing and how to work with licensing companies, contracts and royalties.
He learned that most of the people who work in local theaters here weren’t “diva” and believed that “small roles don’t exist.”
He also learned that local audiences preferred comedy over heavy drama.
He praised the camaraderie among local actors, directors and technicians. They star in each other’s productions and help each other out.
“That’s community theater,” he said. “It’s about people who act and then grab a drill and build a wall.”
And the local actors, directors, technicians and officials return the kudos.
Inverness City Councilor Bega, the third founding member of the Valerie Players board, praised Erhardt for “doing it all” and setting the stage for other groups to play in the theatre.
“He dives with both feet and is good at getting plays going and scheduling,” she said.
She said the theater might bring an orchestra to the theater sometime next year. Told.
“He did a great job,” she said. Mr. Erhardt may be stepping back, but “we still need him,” she said.
Harry Lewis, who has done theater at both the Arts Center and Valerie, said Erhardt “deserved a lot of credit. Valerie needed someone.
“He had to overcome the stigma that the Valerie Theater wasn’t big enough. (The theater has 150 seats.) He had to start where people said it couldn’t be done. said Lewis.
Lewis and Rex Young, who have acted and directed at The Art Center and The Valerie, have set up a company called Lewis and Young to produce, among other things, several theatrical radio shows. Young said their first show, a production of The Scary Ghost Tale of Christmas, could be staged at the Old Courthouse in Inverness in December.
Young said of Erhardt: … Everyone loves Pat. He’s a happy little leprechaun. (Erhardt’s ethnic heritage is mostly Irish, with a few German sprinkles.)
Young continued. “He (Erhardt) picked up the phone, called someone and said, ‘Can you do this for me? i need your help. ‘ And that person thinks, ‘It might be for Pat,'” Young said. “Pat has charisma.”
Charles Niski, who heads Under Siege Productions, one of five groups putting on shows at the Valerie Theatre, said he met Erhardt at the art center. I learn something every time I work with him. He has so much experience. ”
Niski said that Valerie Players sets high standards for the quality of their performances and considers Erhardt “my theater father”. He made a full-fledged adoption. I am his theater son.
Erhardt holds his fellow theater people in high esteem, but he said a theater insider said, “It’s kind of crazy. We’re doing it for the love of theater.” .
For Erhardt, he said, participating in a play was “giving a gift.” “I have a gift. …It is a pleasure to be able to use your gift.
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