Upon moving to the area, Garrett Torbert often heard about the lack of available performance opportunities for children.
The Columbus resident and Mississippi State University instructor decided to do something about it by forming the Golden Triangle Theatre in June 2021. Its first classes started in August.
In his role as executive and artistic director for Golden Triangle Theatre, the nonprofit’s founder serves as a teacher, singer, director and collaborative pianist.
Torbert is no stranger to the performing arts. Along with his teaching experience, Torbert is an active performer in opera, oratorio and recital. He made his professional opera debut with the Mobile, Alabama, opera in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah and additional roles with Mobile opera include Trin in La Fanciulla del West and Yakuside in Madama Butterfly. Other roles include Colonel Johnson in the world premiere of Amir Zaheri’s Freedom and Fire! A Civil War Story, Fenton in Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor (The Merry Wives of Windsor), and Kaspar in Amahl and the Night Visitors. He has been a featured soloist with both the Kansas City Symphony and the Tuscaloosa Symphony in the Mozart Requiem and Handel’s Messiah.
Golden Triangle Theatre started out of a vision to see art and culture become a more important part of the community, especially for children living in the area, Torbert said. Its motto is “Inspire. Nurture. Perform.”
“I had been teaching privately both piano and voice to children in the community and parents would inquire about performing opportunities for their children and really there was not really an option,” he said of his decision to form the group. “In essence, I saw a need and so I went for it.”
The theatre’s programming includes classes, private lessons and a featured season of performances. So far, the organization has put on a performance of the one-act opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors” and “Do We Have to Grow Up?” which was performed as the culmination of the efforts of the theatre’s classes for children ages 7-18.
“We are offering for our children’s theatre a junior production of Beauty and the Beast this spring,” Torbert said. “Because of such a great interest our class is full, which is a true blessing.”
In addition, they are offering a MainStage production for adults. The Theatre Academy’s production of “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Jr.” is set for May 6-8. The MainStage production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance” will be April 22-24.
You don’t have to be an aspiring actor to join the Golden Triangle Theatre. Torbert said they welcome anyone interested in being in the show, either on or off the stage.
“We are currently looking for volunteers who are interested in assisting with either set-building, costume-making, and other areas of the theater,” he said.
Golden Triangle Theatre operates as a nonprofit with a board of directors. Besides Torbert, the staff includes Tennille Koulainen, associate theatre director, and Payton Tanner, assistant theatre director.
Koulainen is the high school performing arts teacher at Columbus Christian Academy. Tanner is a vocal performance graduate from Mississippi State and currently studies music therapy at Mississippi University for Women.
Those working with the theatre are excited about its future, Torbert said.
“We are extremely excited about the potential of Golden Triangle Theatre becoming an integral part of the community as a leading professional company in Mississippi and in the Golden Triangle by providing arts, culture and entertainment for our area,” he said.
For more about Golden Triangle Theatre, visit its Facebook or Instagram accounts or its website, goldentriangletheatre.com.
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