Spotlight May-June 2019

Friends We'll Miss
Shirley Harbin
Three One-Act Plays
About the Elderly
by Elyse Nass
Second Chance • Admit One
The Cat Connection
Performed in many community theatres
and senior venues.
Samuel French, Inc. www.samuelfrench.com
It is with great sadness AACT announces the passing of one of
community theatre’s great ladies, Mrs. Shirley Harbin, on January 17,
2019. She was born December 26, 1931, in Santa Cruz, California.
Community theatre, especially children’s theatre, was a significant
part of Shirley’s life. She was employed by the Detroit Recreation
Department for more than 40 years, first as drama director and then
as arts administrator. Graduating from Muskegon High School in
1950, she went on to receive a B.A. and M.A. in Theatre and English
from the University of Michigan. In 1977 she received her Ph.D. in
Theatre and Recreation from Wayne State University. She served as
president of the American Community Theatre Association (predecessor
to AACT) and the Michigan Theatre Association. As president
of the North American Regional Alliance of the International
Amateur Theatre Association, she was a strong advocate for the
community theatre movement worldwide. As Detroit Recreation
Department Arts Director she coordinated more than ten regional
festivals and five World Theatre OLYMPIADS, which involved
more than thirty countries of the world. She directed countless community
theatre productions, created puppetry programs, arts camps,
head-start arts programs, and festivals. And she worked with such
theatre greats as James Earl Jones, Michael Moriarity, Julie Harris,
and George Peppard. In 2000, she published Millennium Theatres:
Discovering Community Theatre’s Future By Exploring Its Past, a history
of US community theatres fifty years old and older. She was honored
with the Monaco Medal
of Honor for her work with
the International Amateur
Theatre Association of which
she was a part of for more than
two decades. She is listed in
the Who’s Who of American
Women, World Who’s Who
of Women, and Who’s Who
in the Midwest. AACT honored
her as an AACT Fellow
in 1983, she received the David
C. Bryant Outstanding Service
Award in 1991, and in 2003
she was honored with the Art
Cole Lifetime of Leadership
Award.
Shirley once said, “To me, community theatre is democracy in
action. It is a way for people to express their opinions, as well as
the mood of the country. It provides distraction from world events.
It can give people something to laugh about when there seems to
be nothing to laugh about and a chance to cry when mourning is
needed. This has been true for me as well in the United States and
the World."
Avenue of Dream
A One-Act Play by Elyse Nass
“...strong and haunting”
The Hollywood Reporter
“...gives every detail an importance
and echo of its own.”
Los Angeles Times
Dramatists Play Service www.dramatists.com
May/June 2019
AACT Spotlight
37