She's director of T-C Playhouse show

Curtain times are 8 p.m. on May 4, 5, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, and 19, and 3 p.m. on May 13.

When it comes to the local theater scene, Northport’s Karen Cross is well known as a director and actress.

For Cross, theater is far more than a hobby. It’s also an avocation, which is why she is thrilled to have been sought out to serve as director for the upcoming production of playwright Noel Coward’s comedy, Hay Fever, which will begin a three-week run at Traverse City’s Old Town Playhouse Friday night.

“Theater is a way to bring people together to create something different and better than you could do as an individual,” Cross said. “I love the whole process involved in doing theater – the collaboration, the creativity and spontaneity of each different person I get to work with.”

She likened working on a theater production to making a quilt. Or baking a cake.

“Every time a new play is put on, it’s unique, because it involves unique individuals and a unique set of circumstances. It’s like creating a one-of-a-kind quilt, or a cake that you bake from scratch,” she said. “Theater and the arts are so important to me because it reminds me that we are more than what we are physically. In my mind, the arts are critical to being alive.”

By day, Cross is owner of a private fitness studio in Northport called Cross Training: Personal Training & Pilates. She credits her husband, Rick Cross, the former superintendent of Northport Schools, for freedom to explore and express her theatrical interests.

“I couldn’t be what I am as an artist if I didn’t have strong love and support from my husband. Rick is one of the greatest supporters of the arts I’ve ever known. He has always given 100 percent backing of the visual arts, dancing, and theater,” she said.

Cross said that since her husband’s retirement from education, he has been exploring and discovering his own “art,” which is gardening and landscaping.

“In the past few years, Rick has made an incredibly beautiful organic vegetable garden, perennial flower garden and many lovely flower beds, and planted trees and shrubs everywhere. In fact, he has planted 800 daffodils every fall, which have now turned in to more than 2,300. Ten years from now there will probably be 20,000 off our porch. Even now, at sunset … it is breathtaking,” she said.

The couple has two daughters, 25-year-old Anna, who lives in Seattle, and 21-year-old Martha, who lives in Traverse City. Both been involved in the arts throughout their lives.

“Anna was involved in the theater arts in high school and college, and Martha, the visual arts. I’d like to think that as a mother, some of my interests have become their interests over the years,” she said.

During the past six years, she has been involved in many local plays. She was recently seen as Agnes in the Northport Theater Company production of I Do! I Do! Her directing credits include The Happy Journey, an Old Town Playhouse studio production, Private Lives and Guys & Dolls for the Northport Theater Company, and The Boy Friend for the Leelanau Players. In 2005, she was invited to Alaska as guest director for the Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre’s production of The Fantasticks.

Hay Fever is about a lovable, zany British family that exhibits outrageously rude behavior to their guests, generating what producer Thomas Webb calls “uproarious laughs.”

In the play, the Bliss family includes Judith, the retired actress of the London stage; David, a famous reclusive novelist; and their two adult children, Simon and Sorel, “for whom all the world is literally a stage,” said Webb.

Each invites an intriguing guest for a weekend tête-à-tête. The four hapless guests then find themselves in the midst of outrageous family antics.

Phil Krull, a 2006 graduate of Glen Lake, plays one of those hapless guests.

“I play the part of an amateur boxer named Sandy Tyrell. It’s a very challenging part because I’ve had to learn to use a British accent,” said Krull, who is currently studying theater at Northwestern Michigan College. “This play is incredibly entertaining, and a lot of fun. Plus, I think people of all backgrounds will really be able to relate to it.”

Krull said he got his acting “bug” as a senior at Glen Lake High School, when he debuted on stage in The Mouse that Roared.

“The experience of the theater production at Glen Lake made me realize how much I love acting, and so I wanted to learn more,” he said.

Krull’s future goals include moving out West to study at a more prestigious acting school.

“When people go to see this play, they will see more than a play. They’re also going to hear some wonderful music,” said Cross. She said she’s been especially pleased to be able to work to bring the theater communities of Leelanau County and Traverse City together.

“I would love to see more interchange between the art communities of the area. Northern Michigan is such a wonderful area for the arts, and we can all enjoy it, no matter where we’re from,” she said.

Other members of the cast include Maria McKane as Judith Bliss; Phil Callighan as David Bliss; Chelsea Wojes as Sorel Bliss; Chris Horvath as Simon Bliss; Joani Backie-Callighan as Myra Arundle; Rick Korndorfer as Richard Greatham; Esme Bloomquist as Jackie; and Ed Mulcahy as Clara.

Tickets for the Old Town Playhouse production of Hay Fever are available by calling the box office at 947-2210, or online at www.oldtownplayhouse.com.