It’s an anniversary which is even hard for her to believe, yet the summer of 2023 marks the 25th season of Hutton’s Hamlet Performing Arts Center Youth Theater Workshops. Since the beginning, Annette Hutton has been at the helm.

Performances for the annual summer series began last Friday, June 9. Hutton is currently working on the second session of the season with her granddaughter Emily Franz.

First stepping onto the property and calling it home 26 years ago, Hutton shared her husband and business partner Richard was not as convinced of the vision as she was.

“I never worry. Richard worries,” she chuckled. “He’s the one I had to pull kicking and screaming onto this property.”

Case in point, when the couple first approached the property, they were approved free and clear for a traditional home loan and then the lender saw the space. Not a traditional dwelling, a property complete with a home, a church and a utility building, the couple had to shift a bit and secure a business loan.

“So I put down that I was going teach piano and I had another teacher,” she said of the business plan required for consideration of a loan. “I was going to teach about 60 students, maybe the other person would have 20 students and we were going to do one play. The following year we did four plays.”

From teaching classes to leading workshops, the performance enthusiast shared it’s still just as rewarding.

“I think that there have been many years where I’ve said I’m not going to do this anymore. But I don’t know why I can’t stop,” she confessed.

Hutton candidly shared for many years she wanted lots and lots of babies … 25 babies to be exact. Something she desired so much she had names picked out for each child.

“This is my 25 babies, but it’s quite nice, it really is,” she said. “God knew something about me. That I could not be a mother of 25 children, but I love this.”

Early on, Hutton stated she called as well as utilized the productions as workshops, for her and the students. She would routinely look at the script alongside of them versus prior.

“I can’t do that anymore,” she said. “I think that I thought that I could wing, but I don’t want to wing it anymore. I’m much more of a preparer.”

Her former career experience as a teacher taught her that children can indeed learn lines quickly. While it’s not easy, they are capable and through her experience she learned that the shorter time frame for each production brings a more committed buy in.

“That’s sort of the origin of this,” she said of the two-week workshops. “Kids can do it. During the summer they can dedicate these two weeks. I know there’s pressure and the kids can feel it, but they can do it.”

Each summer Hutton’s Hamlet hosts on average five workshops with an average of 25 students per production.

“I feel better than I have in a long time,” the 77-year-old Hutton said when discussing the idea of a possible retirement. “Physically I could probably do it another 10 years, but I can’t do it like I did 25 years ago.”

Her granddaughter Emily Franz, a music theater major however, not only can, but just might.

“Emily would be more than capable to take it over,” she said of her summer helper turned teacher. “That’s where we stand right now. Until three years ago, nobody in my family showed any interest in taking it over.”

Adding that the couple owns the property at the corner of Church and West G streets, Hutton noted she wasn’t really sure what they would do with the property “if not this.”

“She’s very strong minded, but I trust her,” Hutton said of granddaughter Emily, who also started as a youngster as a Hutton’s Hamlet performer.

“I like watching her teach it,” she added of her granddaughter’s skill with choreography. “I’ve learned quite a bit from her. Not just about choreography.”

As if it happened yesterday, Hutton quickly jumps to proud grandmother sharing a story of Emily’s first performance in the Secret Garden at the age of five or six. Recalling everything about it, right down to the youngster’s one line they’d given her.

As for the kids and the past 25 years, Hutton said little has changed.

“The kids are so capable,” she said of the rigors of the program. “I’ve learned that kids can have an idea. They can have a better idea about something.”

For the most part she feels the kids are still the same.

“There’s still an innocence to these kids that I’m glad to see,” she added. “There’s an innocence that is still there and I think it’s nice.”

As for the retirement question, with granddaughter Emily working through her career path, partnering with Hutton and Hutton herself still feeling the passion, there doesn’t appear to be a hurry.

“I don’t do anything for 25 years,” Hutton exclaimed. “I was ten years at UOP teaching, accompanying and all the things I did there. I was ten years as a teacher in a classroom. So this is a long time and yet I feel like I’m now almost getting to a place where it’s easy. So why should I give it up when it’s easy.”

Quickly chuckling, Hutton retracts and confesses to it being stressful, yet fulfilling.

“I love doing it. I love the kids and I love watching them sparkle on stage,” she admitted. “I get tears in my eyes still.”

Hutton’s Hamlet will continue to host workshops and stage performances throughout summer. For additional information on upcoming shows and dates, visit www.huttonshamlet.com or find them on Instagram at huttonshamlet.

“When somebody who’s struggled with something or didn’t think they could do it … and then it happens,” Hutton said of the performers. “Watching them get a laugh, watching them get applause, watching the joy of them doing something well. As a child I wanted to be doing that, that’s why I keep doing it.”