Pam Livingstone has been Managing Artistic Director of Hickory Community Theatre since July of 2000. In September of 2005, she happily turned the Managing half of her job over to John Rambo.
        She comes to Hickory with an extensive background in theatre and arts administration. A professional director for over 25 years, Pam has directed shows from almost every genre of theatre. She has won awards for her directing in Minneapolis, Chicago, Indiana, Southern California and Portland, Oregon where she lived for eight years before settling here. Starting as a fish in the Three Billy Goats Gruff at the age of five, Pam’s acting career led her to membership in Actor's Equity, AFTRA, and SAG professional actors unions. She has earned her living doing stage, television, industrial, film, commercial and voice-over work.
        As a teacher, Pam has taught acting, directing and children's theatre in professional schools and courses at Indiana University and the University of California at Irvine, where she received her MFA in Directing. Pam is also a member of the Dramatists Guild. Working with Beverly Cleary, the renowned children's author, Pam wrote and directed Ramona of Klickitat Street for the Northwest Children's Theatre in Portland. It was their best-selling show to date, helping to contribute to the theatre's acclaim as the nation's Outstanding Children's Theater Company by the American Alliance of Theater and Education.
        As an Artistic Director, she has worked with the community and professional theater sector -- much preferring the community theatre. Here she finds the true love of theatre, where the heart of the art is most alive, and where the most collaborative art form there is finds its inspirational source.
        Since coming to HCT, Pam has established the Youth Theatre Academy, the Hickory Community Theatre Endowment Fund, and the Bridgeview Project. She expanded the season by adding a youth series, and has managed to increase the operating budget over 25%. Because of her longtime passion for new works and classic theatre, new plays and Shakespeare can be seen regularly on the HCT stage.
        Pam is thrilled to be living of such a wonderful community working with such talented people in a truly beautiful facility. She wishes to acknowledge her predecessor, Charles Jeffers, who in his tenure of 40 years brought Hickory Community Theatre to such a distinguished place in this community--truly a cornerstone of arts and culture.


        Charles has worked with the Hickory Community Theatre since 1957. During his tenure HCT grew to be one of the premier community theatres in North Carolina. Its' volunteer and audience base became the largest per capita in the State.
        He has directed more than 200 plays and musicals with occasional acting appearances. Productions under his guidance have won awards from both the North Carolina Theatre Conference and the Southeastern Theatre Conference. He has been named Best Actor by NCTC and Best Director by both NCTC and SETC.
        Charles has served as Chairman of NCTC's Community Theatre Division and named to The North Carolina Arts Council's Community Theatre Panel. Locally he has served as President of the Hickory Rotary Club and named a Paul Harris Fellow. He was elected to the Hickory City Schools Board of Education and served as its Chairman.
        He was the recipient of NCTC's Marion H. Smith Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.


        John Rambo comes to Hickory all the way from Sacramento, California with an extensive background in nonprofit management and a life-long love of theatre. He founded his own charity organization, Breaking Barriers Community Services Center in Sacramento 10 years ago and grew it from a budget of less than $50,000 to $740,000 a year. Prior to starting Breaking Barriers, John had completed a degree in theatre arts from Sacramento City College with the intent of pursuing a career in theatre management. However he felt a need to answer a higher calling, to serve people who needed help so badly. This group provides support service to low-income people living with catastrophic illnesses like breast cancer and promotes disease prevention to people at risk. He is thrilled that providence has now decided to let him return to his original path by opening the door to this opportunity in Hickory.
        John's love of theatre goes back to his early teens, when he worked as a "go-fer" and techie with Foothill Community Theatre in Ft. Collins, Colorado. There's a funny story in just how that all got started - be sure to ask him about it because it's a story he loves to tell. He has worked with 17 different theatre companies as an actor, stage manager, designer, house manager and technician. This fall he makes his screen debut in the independent film, "Unprotected", which will premiere at a Sacramento Film Festival. He bid farewell to the stage in Sacramento by appearing as Jaques in "As You Like It" for the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival.
        His professional work in the nonprofit sector goes back almost 15 years, when he decided that he had to pursue work that had meaning. In a addition to founding Breaking Barriers and operating it for 10 years, he also served for several years as Deputy Director of a Sacramento community center, where he was very successful in fundraising and developing new programs. He has also done free consulting work with other organizations to help his community be a better place to live.


        Christine moved to Hickory from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. There she was employed with The Shaw Festival, a professional repertory theatre company in Niagara-on-the-Lake. She graduated from Brock University in Ontario with a BA in Marketing and Politics. She is married to an avid golfer (who is thrilled to be able to play year round here) and has three wonderful children. Christine is an avid reader but at present spends most of her time taxiing her children around to their many and varied activities.
        Christine's love of theatre brought her to HCT as a volunteer at first then as part of the staff. She is pleased to be working with such great people in a community theatre that produces plays of such consistent high quality.

        Jean has been with HCT since the beginning of March 2005 as the part-time bookkeeper. She is also employed by Hickory Choral Society as their office manager. Jean has lived in the Hickory area for the past 23 years, is married and has two children. Over the years Jean has worked in the banking industry in Hickory as well as being very active in several service organizations and as a volunteer in the school system.

        Clay comes from spending twenty years in the San Francisco Bay Area as a freelance Technical Director and Scenic Designer. He has worked with many of the local theatre companies including, Alameda Civic Light Opera, Diablo Light Opera, Woodminster Amphitheater, and Theatre Rhinoceros. A lot of his work included not only professional theatre but college, high school and middle schools productions. He has taught at both the college and high school levels.
        While he spent twenty years in the Bay Area he is nonetheless a native of Catawba county and was raised in Maiden.
        In 1978 Hickory Community Theatre was his first job on graduating from Lenoir-Rhyne College with a Bachelors in Theatre Arts. After working at Hickory Community Theatre for a couple of years, he then worked at Theatre Jacksonville in Jacksonville Florida. From there it was out to California.
        Along with being a designer Clay is also a painter, working in both watercolor and acrylics. In 2000 he decided to go back to school to get his Masters, and in 2004 he received his Master of Fine Arts degree in Painting from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. He has had several gallery showings in the Bay Area, and currently has some pieces at Stein's Art Gallery in Hickory.