The Lenoir Community College PlayMakers is under the artistic direction of Mitch W. Butts. Butts is the head of the AFA program in drama at LCC. Butts presented his first LCC production, The Boys Next Door, in 2003, and has produced and directed numerous other plays before forming the LCC PlayMakers in 2007.
Butts is a native of Mount Olive and has spent many years working as a professional actor. He has appeared in film (Cat’s Eye, The Bedroom Window, Collision Course, King Kong Lives), in television (Matlock, Dawson’s Creek, America’s Most Wanted, Rescue 911, Dance Fever), and in numerous advertisements and commercials. Television viewers may remember Butts as the “Andes Mint” butler. The majority of Butts’ experience is as a stage actor. His past acting credits include Jesus Christ Superstar, A Chorus Line, All My Sons, Damn Yankees, The Pajama Game, Plaza Suite, Oliver!, and A Few Good Men. He has received awards as Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor and was recently awarded Best Supporting Performance for his work in The Burning Coal Theatre’s production of All the Kings Men. Prior to joining the faculty at LCC, Butts spent a summer working with the nation’s largest outdoor drama, Texas Legacies, where he portrayed Chief Quahnah Parker, the last Comanche war chief. A true renaissance man, Butts is also a certified pastry chef, a gold-medal ballroom dancer, an award winning playwright, and an expert sharpshooter. Butts’ thirty year resume now includes working as an instructor in English, creative writing, Southern literature, and poetry. Butts holds an AA from Western Piedmont, a BA from UNC-Wilmington, and a MA from North Carolina State University. He has presented his research at various North Carolina community college conferences and won a cash award from Townsend Press for his research on the “Base of Knowledge” theory. He is attending the University of Southern Maine’s workshop for reader’s theatre in London in summer 2008.
In 2007-2008, Butts produced a ten show season which celebrated the 50th anniversary of Lenoir Community College. The shows included Talking With, Steel Magnolias, The Queen of Bingo, Look Away, and A Coupla of White Chicks. For the Christmas season, he directed Ebenezer, a play authored by Butts’ friend and mentor, Frank P. Trimble. Butts also directed his own version of a fairy tale entitled Cinderella, A Tale Retold. Clay Whittington, who has been musical director of LCC productions since 2003, composed the score for the fairy tale.
The PlayMakers is comprised of LCC students, staff, and members of the community. The group welcomes anyone who has a desire to be a part of a production. Butts stresses that experience is not required in order to be a part of the PlayMakers. “All that is needed is a desire.” Butts plans to offer a full season of shows each year in hopes of making LCC the premier name in theatrical entertainment in eastern North Carolina. Butts also promotes the LCC Playmakers Touring Company. The 2008-2008 touring season will include Love Letters, The Queen of Bingo, Look Away, Greater Tuna, and The SantaLand Diaries. Butts also plans to develop the LCC Shakespeare Festival, the Just4Kidz touring company, Poetry-N-Motion, and an outdoor drama focusing on the Civil War in North Carolina.
To be a part of the LCC PlayMakers, call Butts at 252-527-6223 (ext. 970) or Dean Kim Turnage at 252-527-6223 (ext. 928).
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