A passion for the theater led Lori Coughlin to pursue a degree in Theatre Arts in 2021.
A desire to share her passion with those who have the least access to the art form led to the creation of the Parker County Theatre Company one year later.
As part of its mission statement, the mobile theater company expresses a desire to "inspire creativity and make theater accessible to all communities within Parker County."
Coughlin said that, so far, her theater company has done just that.
"Parker County is huge," Coughlin said. "It is 900 square miles. We have two excellent theaters located in Weatherford, but that leaves a lot of area within the county that doesn't have a theater presence, so I wanted to create a mobile theater that would give those outlying communities the opportunity to experience theater in a way that they might not be able to do so."
Coughlin grew up in musical theater beginning at the age of 8 when she auditioned for the Texas Girls Choir, performing for the next four years at such venues as TCU's Ed Landreth Hall, the Tandy Center, Scarborough Fair, and the State Fair of Texas.
Coughlin continued her singing throughout middle school and high school and was a member of the concert choir for one semester at the University of North Texas.
She also sang under the direction of Jing Ling Tam in the Fort Worth Opera's first production of "La Boheme" at Bass Hall.
The mobile theater has performed such works as "Twelfth Night," "It's a Wonderful Life," an adaptation of Edgar Lee Master's "Spoon River Anthology" and a Coughlin original called "Home on the Range," which is a musical.
"We actually partnered with a Will Rogers Medallion Cowboy poet for 'Home on the Range,'" Coughlin said. "That is someone who has been recognized by Will Rogers for their contributions to cowboy poetry. His name is John Pelham, and he let us use his body of work to create an original musical, and we performed it at the Tabernacle at Springtown last year."
Coughlin, 50, said determining where her company will perform hinges on a couple of variables.
"It really depends on where I can find space," Coughlin said. "The cost is also a consideration. Some seasons we have more money than others and we're able to afford better spaces. Some seasons we have less money and have to use free spaces, like the park or community spaces where neighborhoods have permitted us to do performances.
"So we've performed everywhere from the Aledo Community Center to the Tabernacle at Springtown. It's just a real variety of spaces to put our shows on."
The Aledo resident said the Parker County Theatre Company has two shows planned for the end of 2024.
"One of those is 'Hamlet,' which will be the first weekend of November,” Coughlin said. “We're still working on the performance space for that one. We're trying to get the Amphitheater in Heritage Park. I had also been trying to get it at the Lucchese Amphitheater in Willow Park. So if neither one of those places happens, that production will be at one of the parks in Parker County. The other one is just a staged dramatic reading of something spooky."
Last year, that happened to be Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Tell-Tale Heart,' which was performed at the Walsh Makerspace.
'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow' is the dramatic reading this year and will be performed on the evening of Nov. 1 at the Pavilion in Walsh Ranch.
“This will be the second year we have brought a spooky story to the community during Halloween,” Coughlin said. “It's a fun way for us to introduce classic works to a new generation and give back during the holiday weekend.”
The company does not have a regular cast, which allows Coughlin to tap into local talent.
"We hold auditions for each performance that we do," Coughlin said. "Regardless of the production, we'll have open auditions. And I have to say that we have been very blessed by the churches in Parker County for letting us use their spaces for rehearsals."
The most challenging aspect of Coughlin's job is finding the funding to rent spaces for her performances.
One venue last year charged the company $2,500 for a performance.
Coughlin said the most important thing for her is that her company accomplishes what she finds most important about her work.
"It's seeing what the actors and crew bring to the show, and seeing how the audience responds to it," Coughlin said. "There are all these gold nuggets in every production we do, and seeing how an actor grows from the initial read-through of a script to what is actually given to the audience on stage is just one of the most rewarding things."
For more information, visit www.parkercountytheatre.com.
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