CHIMACUM — A woman who fashions just about any imaginable prop, makes and alters costumes, and often asks, “Is there anything else I can do?” has received the Paradise Theatre School’s Harriet Award.
Susan Latham is both a devoted stage manager and a gifted seamstress, Pattie Miles and Erik Van Beuzekom, artistic co-directors of the Paradise, said in a statement.
The Harriet prize is named after Harriet Stay, one of the Olympic Peninsula’s hardest-working arts volunteers, and is presented each year to a volunteer who has shown a commitment to the school’s mission of “risk-taking and professionalism,” the Van Beuzekoms said.
The Paradise Theatre School at 161 Center Road is a nonprofit organization producing new plays by local and other playwrights that address the problems and possibilities of our times, the Van Beuzekoms said.
In her five years of volunteering, Latham has hand-crafted every kind of prop, from a tiny statue of a German czar for “I Am My Own Wife” to a complex bee pin for “The Cherry Orchard,” the Van Beuzekoms noted.
“I have rarely had the opportunity to work with someone who brings a body of unique talents to the theater and exhibits the level of passion for them that Susan Latham brings,” added Paradise actor Scott Nollette.
“Anyone lucky enough to work with that level of commitment and professionalism knows, in an instant, that they are seeing something special.”
Latham holds a master’s degree in psychology, is the lead consultant of Thinking Edge in Chimacum and teaches conflict resolution at Peninsula College.
She is certified by Jefferson and Clallam counties and by Washington Mediation Association, which means she has conducted hundreds of mediations and group facilitations.
She lives in Chimacum with her husband, Al, and their two children.
To find out more about the school, phone 360-643-3493, e-mail info@theParadiseTheatreSchool.org or visit www.TheParadiseTheatreSchool.org.
