- Lindsey Eubanks’ new role takes her from a small-town Nutcracker in pointe shoes to leading the state’s largest theatre festival.
No matter where I am this holiday season, the minute I hear any part of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite my posture shoots straight up and my toes curl. That’s what over ten years of semi-professional dance can do to a person. Once a dancer, always a dancer! Even in a car full of totes, props, and theatre supplies, I sit differently just listening to the Snow Pas De Deux.
This effect, mind you, is not isolated to just me. Thousands of former Sugar Plums walk about us unrecognized every day! Many go to put up their pointe shoes and move on to life’s other demands and interests.
My mentors, the people who taught me the joy of movement and the joy of life—well, they kept dancing into their sixties. I don’t know that I could calculate the massive social impact of Cherri Barnett and Dolan Shoemaker over the decades of Christmases in many Mississippi communities where they made the Nutcracker happen.
I recall all walks of life… The colors and costumes and backstage chatter… Every different kind of person you could imagine was in these shows, and most everyone left a little more empowered for being a part of it.
When you have mentors that powerful at eight years old, you’re challenged the rest of your life with, “How in the world do I give back to my community like that? Can that energy even be Matched?”
Fast-forward thirty years. Everything and nothing changes, they say. I’m using my dancer strength for picking up my son who needs to get in and out of his wheelchair. I hung up the pointe shoes to go after the theatre, and I gave up theatre right around the time I became a mom. Other ballerinas growing up used to joke that when I got older, I would run the Madison Square Center for the Arts.
Well, let’s just say life didn’t quite work out like that, but last year, I took a position as the next Executive Director for the Mississippi Theatre Association. This apple didn’t fall far from its tree. The 501c3 is run primarily by educators and volunteers.
Like some historic right of passage, I now find myself in the seat of planning the state’s largest theatre festival. A Meridian Masquerade to be exact! What better place to host an extravaganza?
Meridian Masquerade
The event spans four days and has over 800 participants, most of whom are students. This year the event will be held at the MSU Riley Center, the Mississippi Arts and Entertainment Experience, and Meridian Little Theatre, from January 16-19, 2025. The historic opera house and supporting facilities will bustle with workshops, performances, and auditions.
This year’s youth social, “A Wicked Good Time,” will feature a lip-sync competition with DJ Tech and a special appearance by the Phantom of the Opera!
Ten high schools and four community theatres from throughout the state will compete. The top two competing high schools and community theatres advance to the Southeastern Theatre Conference where groups from around the United States are invited to showcase their performances.
The event will include various sets, all the costumes, a special needs group of thirty actors, twenty volunteers, and twenty chaperones who are changing the landscape of theatre for the disabled…. and a partridge in a pear tree.
All walks of life…
History, is, indeed, repeating itself. Join us for a rainbow of characters and unforgettable stories this festival season. May you leave more empowered than when you arrived. Performances happening during the festival are open to the public.
Tickets for block performances and day passes can be purchased in the grand lobby of the MSU Riley Center during the event. For questions or details regarding the event, please email execdir@mississippitheatre.org
