Sometimes it’s fun to know who’s behind a good show. For us, it’s fun to show off all of the wonderful people we work with! This page just begins to touch the surface of the depth of talent, creativity, dedication and business savvy that has made the Princess Festival possible, year after year. We cannot begin to thank the literal thousands of volunteers that have helped us and worked with us.
OPERATIONS
Ron and Maurine
The vision and execution of the Princess Festival has only been made possible by the passion and tireless dedication of Ron and Maurine Hatfield. Married now for 40 years, and having raised eight kids, the Hatfields are veterans of hard work, commitment and clever methods of entertaining children. Ron worked for 25 years as an industrial contractor, with Maurine by his side in both the office and at home. These days, Ron hauls around all of the equipment needed for the Princess Festival and swings all of the business deals, while Maurine repairs costumes and works on the creative story development team. Ron dreams of working until the day he dies – or “having a blast,” as he calls it-, and Maurine’s dreams are fulfilled: she’s officially the little old granny that the neighbor kids come to for fresh cookies. Maurine is, of course, the namesake of the Princess of Nord Staur. We don’t yet have a Hobbyduke or Prince silly enough to name after Ron.
Laura
Laura is the center of sanity for the Princess Festival. A master organizer, coordinator, and just a generally delightful person, Laura makes sure we hit deadlines, follow-through on intentions, and have enough volunteers and staff to put on a great show. A mother of five and cub scout leader for nearly a decade, Laura also makes sure our cast has enough food and water to stay alive (one of those details the rest of us always seem to miss). She has served as the volunteer chairwoman of the Festival for two years, and has become literally indispensable. Laura insists that when she and Holly Sue are old women vacationing in Paris, she’ll wear a tiara the whole time.
Preston
Preston is a voice of reason at the Princess Festival, and also the last word on good taste. While many of us are happy to show up to work in mismatched clothes from the 70′s, and are impressed with wrinkled banners of mustard orange and teal, Preston, in fact, understands the concepts of matching, style, and quality. Aside from protecting us from our own lack of taste, Preston keep us on target with prioritizing our growth objectives. If not for his gentle leadership, we’d surely be selling state of the art toothpicks, instead of cute hairbows and tiaras.
CREATIVE
Devin
Devin is the Princess Festival’s magical wizard of theater, wrapped in a package of a really friendly, happy, relaxed guy. Devin has been running the theatrical side of our organization since the day we opened. The scope of Devin’s contribution is mind blowing: Devin runs auditions, write plays, manages over 80 actors, designs costumes, maps out the show space, and handles all of the details that go along with those things (schedules, sizing, weather and food constraints, neurotic operations staff, etc.) … and from 2008-2011 did it ALL as a volunteer. And he smiles, constantly. We don’t know exactly how he does it, but we love him for it.
Megan D.
Devin’s leaving us for two years (he’s going on a mission!), and we realized with a panic that we were losing the crown jewel of our empire. In waltzes Megan, masterfully playing the role of Cinderella’s stepmother in the 2011 summer show, and offering her skills in theatrical leadership to help us replace Devin. <big sigh of relief> Megan comes with two extra qualifications (aside from her inarguable capacity for great acting and leadership): 1) she’s a school teacher, which means she’s really good at understanding how to manage both little kids (our guests) and big kids (our cast) <score!>, and 2) she’s got little ones of her own, providing invaluable feedback as a mediator between us and our guests. Golden!
Katie
As we’ve wondered about Devin’s immeasurable capacity to get things done, we came upon a clue: Devin knows how to build and amazing team, and Katie is evidence of that. Katie has acted with the Princess Festival in 2009-2011, and in 2011 wrote music for the shows and co-directed with Devin. Katie is completing a Bachelor’s in Music Therapy, but has promised to stick around with Megan D. in getting our 2012 show off the ground <phew>. We’re wondering if creatives/directors are like nesting dolls, and now that we’ve gotten past Devin to the next layer (Katie), if we’ll find that she has her own dream team… It wouldn’t surprise us.
Lori
Lori is the artist behind all of the Princess Festival characters, storybooks, set painting/design. About 10 years ago, Ron and Maurine met Lori and immediately fell in love with her art, but had no way to utilize her gifts. It is our pleasure to now bask in Lori’s endless creativity, and stare in true wonder as she sketches characters right before our eyes that are way cuter than we had been describing. We’ve wondered if there were any limits to her capacity, and have really loaded her full of work these past few months. Our unanimous conclusion is that she’s unbreakable and connected to the fount of all creativity. Lucky us!