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Inside the walls of 125-year-old buildings in one Tennessee town lives a state-of-the-art Performing Arts Center that brings world-class acts to our area each year.

Hello, I'm Steve Beverly, and on this edition of Tennessee Is Talking, the topic is the Dixie Carter Performing Arts & Enrichment Center in Huntingdon.

They've just announced their new season of shows.

Well, how did it begin and how can you enjoy all that the Dixie has to offer?

Let the conversation begin.

That's so cool.

Then that's when I said that-- The problem with that idea is-- Wow, that was amazing.

Then I came up with the solution.

What was that about?

Here's what I think about it.

Now we're talking.

West Tennessee PBS presents, Tennessee Is Talking.

Let the conversation begin.

Thanks for joining the discussion here on Tennessee Is Talking.

Hello, I'm Steve Beverly.

Nestled in the heart of Huntingdon is the ultimate venue to see our country's most talented acts in a state-of-the-art intimate setting.

We're talking about the Dixie Carter Performing Arts & Enrichment Center.

Here to tell us more is their executive director Angela DeMaris.

Angela, thanks so much for joining us.

Great to have you with us.

Well, thank you.

Thank you for having me.

This is wonderful.

Well, it was exciting when the Dixie was.. and the idea was that we were going to bring significant entertainment events to Huntingdon, Carroll County, but also to attract people from outside.

Jackson people go there -many times for that.

-That's right.

For anybody who has never actually been to the Dixie, tell us about it.

Wow.

The Dixie is a little gem in West Tennessee.

We just love it.

It is a welcoming place.

We have acts that just are astounding.

They come through our little area.

Sometimes they'll have a show in Memphis or Nashville, and we're just in that sweet little spot where they can come through and see us.

The acoustics are wonderful.

All the musicians that we have on stage, they just really love, like you said, the intimate atmosphere.

They are right there with the patrons and the patrons love that from the artist.

That's the thing about it is that you're right up -close and personal.

-Absolutely.

It's not like when you're in one of these major theaters where you may be way back in the back and need the opera glasses to be able to see.

Exactly.

The nosebleed section.

Yes.

We don't have a bad seat in our house.

We sit about 475, so under 500.

We have two levels.

We have about 311 on the downstairs and 160 on the balcony.

There's two sections, but yes, not a bad seat in the house.

Well, Dixie Carter was always one of my favorites because when I met her twice in this area, once when she was signing her autobiography.

I remember she talked a little bit about different things that she had done over the years, and I said, "Well, I go back with you all the way to when you were on the edge of night every day when I was in college."

Of course, then she went on to shows like Filthy Rich and Designing Women, of course, was her signature show.

Let's talk about Dixie herself.

What is it about the fact that she grew up McLemoresville and she still maintained a home there?

What was it that Dixie kept bringing back and kept wanting to come back to West Tennessee?

There is something about the people there.

There's something about the atmosphere.

She loved her hometown.

She was a true Southerner, and I think she always remembered her roots and where she was from.

She would come back all the time.

Really the visionary of the Dixie is our former mayor, Dale R. Kelley.

He went to high school with Ms. Dixie, and he was mayor of Huntingdon for over 30 years.

He had the idea to put this performing arts center in the middle of his downtown, this town of 4,000 people.

He named it after his high school friend, Dixie Carter.

When it was announced to her, it was a surprise but she welcomed it.

Her husband, Hal Holbrook was instrumental in the way the theater is in the backstage area.

He helped with all of that.

Both of them were very instrumental in the building of the Dixie.

They came there often.

They would see the little kids come to shows.

I remember Dixie said a little girl came up to her and said, "I love the ballet."

Here we are just educating these young people that have maybe never gone to the theater before.

Here they are.

Hal Holbrook, he started by having a field trip to a theater when he was very young and he saw an orchestra, and that was his first, I guess, taste of the stage.

That's what made him become an actor later in life.

Those field trips are very, very important.

Of course, Hal was an Emmy winner.

He also in particular toured the country as Mark Twain.

It was captivating to watch him get in character for the many, many years that he did Mark Twain on stage.

Now, we talk about that the Dixie is a place for world-class performers, but it's also a place for education and exhibits.

Give us a thumbnail of what is available for people in school groups, or just anybody to come in and see the exhibits.

Those are our favorite things.

We have school programs that are after school.

The children can come and we'll go to the school a.. but usually, they'll come to our center.

We have classes in photography, pottery, and music, fall, spring, and summer.

Then in the summer, we like to amp it up and we'll add a painting class or a doodling class or art class.

We'll do a lot of things during the summer, theater classes.

We love it when those kids come in and their smiling faces and they're learning and creating wonderful little pieces of art.

That's the best part of what we do is-- Well, while we're on the subject, how would a group schedule an opportunity for these or a tour of the Dixie?

Absolutely.

You can come to our center.

We're at 191 Court Square, right on the heart of Huntingdon, Tennessee.

You can go to our website, dixiepac.net.

That's Dixie P-A-C for Performing Arts Center.

You can give us a call, 731-986-2100.

Of course, like us on Facebook, we're on all the socials, Twitter, Instagram, all of those.

Facebook is a good one where we get up-to-date information and our website.

Now, Angela, we are in the early part of fall now.

We've transitioned away from-- We may have a few more hot days, but we've transitioned away from some of those extraordinarily humid days of summer.

Now, here we are.

The kids are back in school, and the opportunities exist again.

You have just announced your new season of shows.

What can you tell us about those for our West Tennessee audience?

Sure.

It is our 19th season at the Dixie.

Every year we bring almost 20,000 individuals into our center.

This year we are really looking forward to some great shows.

We have a heart tribute, so we have actual members of the original Band of Heart.

They're going to come out.

We have Thompson Square for our country music lovers.

We have the return of Bethel University in McKenzie, Tennessee.

They come and do a musical every year.

We'll have Mandy Barnett with our Winter Wonderland, the return of Henry Cho, which is a very popular comedian in West Tennessee that everyone loves.

We have a lot coming up.

It's going to be wonderful.

You are absolutely loaded with all of this.

What about the Christmas show in and of itself?

If people come to that, what can they expect to see?

We have a few Christmas events.

We have Christmas at the Dixie, which will be December 7th.

Now that is a community theater.

You can audition to be on that show.

If you are a singer or an actor and you're interested, you can be on that show.

Then we'll have Main Street Christmas the next weekend, and that's in Huntingdon, where we shut down the square and have a wonderful Christmas atmosphere and a parade and all that kind of stuff.

Then Mandy Barnett will be here December 21st with her winter wonderland.

Just wonderful Winter Christmas music and country music.

I'm always curious, how far in advance do you have to work to be able to get all of these performers and events scheduled?

At least a year out.

It's amazing.

I'm sometimes thinking of the past, I'm in the present, and then thinking way out in the future.

A good year in advance, at least.

Well, I know it's fun.

It's also challenging because all the pieces have to come together to make this happen.

Let's think about this.

It takes financial support to make a place like the Dixie work.

What is the best way for people, both financially and personally, to support the Dixie?

Absolutely.

Of course, buying tickets to our shows is a wonderful thing.

We also have a great sponsorship community.

We have businesses that we sponsor and they help fund those shows.

And we also give them recognition and open up our audience to their customer base.

Then also donations can be made.

Those can be made on our website when you're buying tickets and they're in person.

Any particularly because for people who don't know, this is such a rarity to have a building and that is devoted to the arts in a town the size of Huntingdon because a lot of communities don't have that vision.

Let's look at this from this perspective.

What does it also mean to the economy of Huntingdon and Carroll County?

I think it means a lot.

I definitely think that we have seen in the last few years our sales tax has gone up in Carroll County.

I think there's a lot of businesses that opened up around the square, including next to our theater.

We've had several new restaurants, new boutiques that have opened.

I think that all helps with the economy and our shows.

When our patrons come, they're not just coming to see a show.

They're coming to eat.

They'r.. their gas tank.

They might stay the night.

There's a lot of things that happen when all those patrons come into town.

I think it's important to just keep activity going on a square that used to be run down.

Now when you talked a few minutes ago about that anybody can audition to be part of that Christmas show.

How do they go about doing that?

How do they get an audition for that?

Sure.

You can just show up.

Our auditions are open for anyone.

Once we announce that date, which will be on our website or on our Facebook post, we'll announce that audition date and you just show up then we have the auditions.

When I do an interview, I always like to reinforce because I know we've already mentioned it, but let's mention it again.

I'll probably ask you before we leave again.

How do you get to the website?

Yes.

It's dixiepac.net, dixie, P-A-C.net.

And our phone number is 731-986-2100.

That's an easy one to remember.

731-986-2100.

That's almost like what we used to do when we were doing telethons for various nonprofits.

-We'd say, "Okay, here's the number."

-That's right.

[laughs] That's a concern.

For people who grew up around Huntingdon and around the Carroll County area, what has it been like for them to have this as a show place that says, look, we can do this just like the people in the bigger cities.

Absolutely.

They love it.

I don't know how many season package holders I know that are like, "Wow, we can come here.

We can go home.

It's a quick drive.

We're not having to go to Nashville.

We're not having to go to a big city where normally these theaters are."

They're not having to fight all that traffic.

They're right here at home.

I think also their children being able to come to all those classes, I've seen them grow up because here we are on our 19th Season.

Some of those first children are now in college.

Some of them have come back and want to teach classes for us.

It's a circle.

It's a wonderful generational circle.

I think the community really appreciates having the option of arts and culture in Huntingdon.

Tell us more about the classes because I'm fascinated with that.

Most people when they think of a performing arts center, that it's strictly concerts, or plays, things of this nature.

Tell us about the classes and how they're organized.

We actually have a second location.

It's the Annex of the Dixie that is Mudslingers Pottery Studio.

It is-- -I love the name.

[laughs] -Yes.

It's on the square.

It's across from the Dixie.

It's an old gas station.

It's from the 1900s.

It's this old gas station that was renovated for a pottery studio.

We are slinging mud at the Mudslingers Pottery Studio all year long.

Then in our building, we'll have music classes.

We have a teacher from Birdsong School of Music in Camden.

She does teaches weekly at the Dixie, violin, cello, guitar, keyboard.

You name it, the instrument, and she can teach your child how to play it, and adults as well.

Then we also do photography.

We have a wonderful gentleman that is from Union University-- -I bet I know him.

-Jim Veneman.

[crosstalk] I know Jim Veneman.

One of my best friends in life.

-I've talked with him for many years.

-Okay.

He is amazing.

He does our photography classes all year long.

You're talking about one of the finest in America.

-The best.

-To lead that class.

Yes.

He's had photos in National Geographic.

He's taken photos of Fidel Castro, 9/11.

He is amazing.

We have him right there.

He does our afterschool program.

He'll go to Huntingdon Middle School and teach photography to the middle schoolers.

That's another thing I wanted to follow up on is the outreach to schools.

How that all works and what that actually means in expanding a knowledge of the arts that goes beyond just being able to watch a play or a concert.

Yes, absolutely.

Our school programs, we have the school children come in and it'll be a show literary like Pete the Cat or The Great Gatsby.

That will go along with the school curriculum.

We'll have teachers that will go and read books to children in the schools.

Then we have this After School program.

It's covered by a LEAPS grant that's done through the school.

We provide the instructors, the Dixie do, and they will go to the school and teach classes.

Usually, they're on a weekly basis for a certain amount of time.

Just fabulous to think about how that touches children everywhere of all.

How early as far as the age group for a child, how early do you go for these classes?

Usually kindergarten and up.

-Sometimes they'll be-- -That's pretty early.

Yes.

The photography sometimes will start at 3rd grade, but pottery, we can start at kindergarten because they can sling that mud pretty early.

They love it.

-Every last one of them love it.

-They do.

They love it.

How about teachers in the area?

What does it mean to them to be able to have something through the Dixie that embellishes what they do in the classroom?

I think it's a wonderful opportunity.

I think it gives them a chance to be more creative, to be outside the box, to reach people you wouldn't normally reach.

I think they really enjoy having that outlet.

When you are trying to build a schedule for your seasons during the course of the year, how do you find out about new performers who might be available or new acts?

How do you find out about them and how do you go about scheduling them?

I deal with a lot of agents.

They'll bring me their roster and say, here's who we've got touring and I can choose from that.

There's different conferences you can go to and see a little skit of what these acts are going to be.

Then just talking to people.

We've been doing it for 19 years, so I've made connections through there.

We've had artists that tell other artists about us.

Then they'll contact me and say, "Hey, I want to come to the Dixie."

We've gotten there.

It's a wonderful feeling.

We talked earlier about the Christmas programs that you're going to be able to have.

Just tremendous.

Give us an idea about how this really becomes almost the centerpiece for Huntingdon and Carroll County to have these kinds of shows at Christmas time because let's take a look at it.

We're barely two months away from these things happening.

Exactly.

Towns love to get together for the holidays.

Huntingdon is no different than that.

We love to get together.

We love to shut down the court square to traffic.

A lot of times, we'll have a live nativity that's on stage and we'll bring animals out and we'll have families from the town that take part in that.

We'll have churches come out and they'll sing choirs.

Their choirs will come out and sing.

We really try to make it homey and just a place for out-of-towners, maybe to return home for that weekend and to visit their family.

We try to have activities for the whole family to enjoy.

Again, considering, let's just say for someone who has never been inside the Dixie, where in the building can they learn more about Dixie Carter herself?

Wow.

We can learn a lot.

We have a museum on our lower level, and so we have some of her outfits from Designing Women and Desperate Housewives and some of her Broadway plays that she was in.

We have some of her pianos because she was very big into music.

Oh, she was an extraordinarily talented pianist.

Yes.

She was.

She has a CD.

Her husband released a CD of her singing cabaret music after her death.

We have that CD available.

We do have a gift shop.

We have a lot of her artifacts out and a lot of her piano pieces.

Then we have a ballroom gallery on the second floor that we do art exhibits and they change out quarterly.

About four times a year, we'll have something new on display.

We are open to the public, Monday through Friday, You're welcome to come in.

It's free.

I was going to say, because the Dixie has become somewhat of a welcome center for the county and for Huntingdon.

-Absolutely.

-That's a very special part of this.

Yes.

I consider this to be a tourism part of the town.

We are owned by the town.

We are owned by Huntingdon.

We are a department just like City Hall, and the police department and water department.

The Dixie is a department of the town which is wonderful because we are well under their umbrella.

It's just a great little place and we're just perfectly positioned on the square, I think.

It's just a wonderful welcoming center, like you said.

In case you just tuned in, we h.. who is the Executive Director of the Dixie Carter Performing Arts Center, the Dixie, as we have all called it for so many years.

This has already been in 20 minutes, it's gone by so fast and so enlightening but I wanted to, when somebody does the kind of job that you do, I always like to ask, what is it that has been the most personally rewarding thing for you, being in the role that you have?

I would have to say, when I can look back and think of all the shows that we've had and I can have people that bring that up to me, they'll be like, ah, Phantom of the Opera, best show ever at the Dixie, or Richard Marks was at the Dixie, Carol Channing was at the Dixie.

There's just been so many special moments that it's hard to pick on one thing but I can definitely look back at the past and feel very rewarded with what all that we've accomplished and I can just see the change in the town, I think, too, because I've noticed new art businesses that have come in and music-related businesses.

I just feel like a lot of that is a wonderful testimony to Mayor Kelly's vision that he had and that he wanted for his community, is that we just wanted more outlets in the town other than maybe just sports.

We needed some more for our community.

It has certainly been that across the board.

When you were, say, in high school, could you have ever envisioned yourself doing this job?

Absolutely.

[laughter] Well, I always wanted to be something in theater and theaters have always been attracted to me.

I don't know why.

When I was 17, I moved to New York City to become an actress myself and I stayed there about seven years.

I was there when 9/11 happened and I was there for two more years after that.

I wanted to be part of the rebuilding.

I was in my mid-20s and I didn't want to live that hard urban life and so I changed.

This is just what a great opportunity for me to be able to still be in the theater but to live in such a wonderful Midwest area, it's just phenomenal.

I feel very special to live in a small town but have a big-town job, have a really big-town place that I get to spend time in.

For viewers who have just tuned in and we did this earlier but I want you to recap again the key events that you have coming up, because you've just announced your season.

Just go down the menu and tell us about them.

Okay.

We have a Hart Tribute.

We have Thompson Square coming.

We've got Henry Cho, Mandy Barnett and the Winter Wonderland.

Confederate Railroad is coming.

Endless Highway is going to be our gospel show.

I've got a real interesting show called The Aluminum Show that is kind of like a space alien -that's come to town.

-I'm too curious about that.

[laughs] Give me a little more on this.

This is going to be a show for families and it's going to have these large industrial aluminum monsters that come out of the stage and it's going to be really interesting, I think.

Dancing, but it's going to be a lot of movement.

When is that one going to be?

That one is February 8th.

Okay.

It's not far off, folks.

It's only about three months away so you've got to get ready for that.

As far as specific day and date, what do we have going on in the remainder of October, November?

Of course, we talked about Christmas.

What do we have going on?

October 12th, we've got Hart by Hart, the Hart Tribute.

We've got October 26th, Thompson Square and then in November is when we're going to start having Bethel and their musical so we're really excited about that.

It's such a talented music program that has been through the years.

Bethel University Renaissance, they have Broadway-talented students that come to our stage and we love it.

They have two weekends of that, lots of opportunities to see that show.

Because it's the home university as wel..

Absolutely.

The folks in McKenzie have always been there.

There are many people that I have that are friends there and I know how proud they are of the university but also the singers as well for what they do.

Yes, so good.

Last thing that you would share with our audience before we have to wrap it up.

I'd also like to say we do something every year.

It's the Designing Women Marketplace.

Because of Dixie Carter and her wonderful TV show that she was on, we have a Designing Women Market where we invite female-owned businesses to come into our center.

It's very different than what we normally do.

It's not a show but it's an event.

We have female-owned businesses come into the center, set up booths and we sell tickets to that and it's a shopping extravaganza.

That is always the third weekend in March and we always look forward to that.

It's been so great to have you with us and to share something that is a treasure for the city of Huntingdon and for all of West Tennessee and please come back and be again with us on Tennessee is Talking.

Sadly, we're out of time for this edition of Tennessee is Talking.

We do want to thank Angela DeMaris, the Executive Director from the Dixie, for stopping by to tell us about the new season.

If you want to re-watch this program or share it with a friend, remember, it can be streamed on the PBS app along with all local Channel 11 programs and you can watch it on the West Tennessee PBS YouTube channel and on westtnpbs.org.

Let's keep the conversation going by following West Tennessee PBS on social media.

Until next time, I'm Steve Beverly.

I'll see you Saturday nights on Steve Beverly's TV Classics.

Until we're with you on our next edition, keep on talking Tennessee.

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Please visit westtnpbs.org and make a donation today so that we can continue to make local programs like this possible.

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