To Libby Ricardo And George Pate, The Theater Is A Love Affair
his is the story of a young couple, one from Rhode Island and the
other from South Carolina, who met by chance and whose lives have
become forever entwined in love and the pursuit of their mutual
passion—life in the theater. It’s a romance that would make a
captivating play, one that Libby Ricardo and George Pate could
dramatically portray on the stage, just as they do in life.
Act I: Setting the Scene
Scene 1—Libby
Born Elizabeth Ann Ricardo in Cranston, Rhode Island, Libby has
been performing for audiences since she was 10 years old, when she
sang in La Boheme and Carmen with an opera company in nearby
Providence. At age 11, she auditioned with Trinity Rep, affiliated
with Brown University, for a part in the play A Christmas Carol and
has been acting on stage ever since.
“From that early age I knew I wanted to attend New York
University and was very determined—everything I did was geared toward
that goal,” Libby emphasizes. At NYU, Libby trained at the Stella
Adler studio in the Tisch School of the Arts, and was selected to
study abroad in the prestigious Experimental Theatre Wing’s
International Theatre Workshop in Amsterdam. “The opportunity to train
in Amsterdam with those incredible theater practitioners was surreal!”
she exclaims.
After NYU, Libby auditioned in New York City for the University
of Georgia’s Master of Fine Arts program and was offered a teaching
assistantship, so she pursued her MFA in Performance there. “I
accepted the offer without even visiting the campus in Athens first. I
was so surprised when I arrived. The sense of community on the campus
was energizing and I loved living in an historic antebellum house
there—it was very different than my experience in New York City.”
Scene 2—George
George Jarrard Pate grew up in Spartanburg, South Carolina. In
the fifth grade, he auditioned for the Spartanburg Youth Theatre’s
production of the Pied Piper and got a part. “Mary Nicholson with the
youth theater was, and is still, my greatest mentor,” George says. “I
was with the youth theater group from the fourth through twelfth
grades. I did everything with the group—run lights, build sets, act on
stage and direct. It was my theater home for seven years and during
that time I was part of nearly 30 plays. In my senior year, I directed
The Emperor’s New Clothes, and was only the second student in the
group’s history to direct a play,” he says.
After high school, George attended the University of South
Carolina, but wasn’t sure what he wanted to pursue there. For his
first two years he majored in computer science, then switched to a
major in English. While at USC, he continued with theater—acting and
directing plays in the university theater and doing improv.
When George graduated, he moved to Chicago to take classes in
improv and worked doing stand up comedy. He was so good that he won
the regional finals of a contest held by Comedy Central. “I wanted to
train with Second City (the famous comedy troupe), but after doing
comedy gigs for a year, it didn’t feel like a career to me,” says
George.
Instead, he applied to several graduate schools and chose the
University of Tennessee. By the time he earned his Masters degree,
George knew he was destined for a career in the theater, so he applied
for Doctoral programs at universities that had theater departments. He
selected the University of Georgia because of its distinguished
theater faculty and the teaching assistantship offered to him.
Act II: A Blossoming Romance
Scene 1—Serendipity
Libby had completed the first year working on her MFA when George
arrived at the University of Georgia in 2010 to begin his Doctoral
program. Libby recalls her friend Tressa calling to say, “I’ve met the
guy for you!” Tressa met George at an orientation event for graduate
students in the theater department and soon introduced him to Libby.
“He looked really cute wearing a vest and a tie. I set my sights on
him—he really didn’t know it was coming!” Libby confesses.
Scene 2—The Proposal
Just a year after meeting, on November 11, 2011 in Libby’s campus
apartment George asked her, “Do you know what happened here on this
spot? It’s the place where I first told you I love you!” Kneeling
down, he asked Libby to marry him. They quickly called everyone in
their close-knit community of theater friends to share the good news
and went out with all of them the same evening to celebrate.
Scene 3—The Wedding
On Valentines’ Day a few months before their wedding, George
surprised Libby with a plaque affixed to the arm of one of the seats
in the Fine Arts Theatre at the University of Georgia—the place where
their life together in the theater debuted. The plaque is inscribed
with their names, the date they met there, and their wedding date—a
permanent tribute to their love.
Libby and George wed on June 21, 2014 in Newport, Rhode Island in
the same chapel where her parents were married. “It was a perfect day.
I remember how crisp all of the colors were—the sky was the bluest
blue… It truly was the happiest day of my life to that point, but it
just gets better spending time every day with my husband,” says Libby.
Act III: Happily Ever After in Beaufort…
George decided to come to the University of South Carolina,
Beaufort (USCB) because the school was looking for someone who could
teach both English and theater, and he would have an opportunity to
help shape USCB’s theater program. When the couple came to town for
George’s interview in February 2014, they fell in love with Beaufort.
“It was serendipitous—while we were in town I found the local theater
group Shakespeare Rep, a place for me to work in theater too.” Libby
says. After only nine months here, George and Libby have both made a
dramatic impact (pun intended!) on USCB and on the theater community
in Beaufort.
Scene 1—George Pate: Professor, Director, Actor
Dr. George Pate, Assistant Professor of English, Drama and
Theater, joined USCB last fall. A teacher, director, and playwright,
his play Indifferent Blue won the Tennessee Williams National One-Act
Playwriting Contest in 2008 and was recently published. Working with
Rob Kilgore, the head of USCB’s English and Theater Department, George
has already proposed, developed and started teaching several
classes—playwriting, theater history, and directing—in a newly
developed theater minor program. In addition, he teaches classes on
composition, acting, and theater appreciation.
Newlyweds George and Libby appeared together on stage at USCB as
a married couple in Shakespeare Rep’s production of Almost, Maine in
October last year. And, George is currently directing rehearsals for
the upcoming production of Blithe Spirit (billed as an improbable
farce) for The Beaufort Theatre Company at the USCB Center for the
Arts, April 16 – 19, 2015. “As a director, George has a clear vision
of what he wants from actors and is great at communicating that to
them,” says Libby, who has performed in plays he’s directed.
Scene 2—Libby Ricardo: Director, Teacher, Actress
In September, three months after moving here, Libby directed The
Beaufort Theatre Company’s production of Grease: The Musical at the
USCB Center for the Arts. “I can’t say enough about the cast of
Grease. It was wonderful working with all of them!” she says. The show
earned rave reviews, and the production and some of the cast members
were nominated for several BroadwayWorld South Carolina Regional
Awards. Grease won the award for Best Production of a Musical and
Libby Ricardo won the award for Best Direction of a Musical. It was
George who recommended to Bonnie Hargrove, Director of the USCB Center
for the Arts, that Libby become the musical’s director.
While working on the musical, Libby met Anna Schaffer, a young
woman also active in local theater, who was cast in Grease. The two of
them, who are both actresses, directors and singers, have become
inseparable friends. And now they’re working together with USCB’s
Children’s Theatre and the Main Street Youth Theatre on Hilton Head
Island.
Libby’s involvement with Shakespeare Rep encompasses both
teaching and acting. “Teaching is my favorite, but acting and teaching
are symbiotic activities—they feed each other,” she explains. Libby is
currently conducting the second installment of her characterization
classes, which focus on creating characters within the context of the
scene. She’s also in rehearsals for Shakespeare Rep’s March 2015
production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in which she plays the role
of Hermia.
On May 9 at the USCB Center for the Arts fundraising event, The
Affair, Libby will direct the cabaret-type show “It’s Our Time,”
featuring performers from The Beaufort Theatre Company and USCB’s
Children’s Theatre. The performers will reprise show tunes they’ve
sung on USCB’s stage in past productions. During the show, Anna
Schaffer and Libby Ricardo, known as “The Happy Girls” by staff at the
Center for the Arts, will sing a duet about friendship.
Scene 3—Theater: A Love Affair
George and Libby’s eyes light up as they share their plans for
the future, “We’re eager to bring more theater to Beaufort!” Libby
explains, “George wants to bring regional playwrights to town and have
actors do staged readings of their plays for audiences. The audiences
would provide feedback about the plays as part of the development
process. George is thinking about calling it Plays by the Bay.”
It’s clear that this couple is in love with each other, and in
love with the theater. Libby Ricardo and George Pate have truly taken
center stage in Beaufort’s theater community. And the talented couple
has many scenes yet to play, as the continuing drama of their
theatrical careers and love story unfolds before us. Get ready for the
next act!
story by carol lauvray
photography by paul nurnberg
