QuickTake:

Tim and Paula Tendick have volunteered at the Very Little Theatre since 1989. This year, the couple was recognized as two of the top community theater volunteers in the United States.

It was during a production of “Arsenic and Old Lace” at the Very Little Theatre, married volunteers Tim and Paula Tendick recalled, when Ron Hartung was nowhere to be found.

Hartung, a local actor who frequently went by the name “Ron Hart” on stage, was supposed to be on stage as Dr. Einstein, a plastic surgeon who hides criminal’s identities. 

But the doctor was not in. Actors started to improvise lines about looking for Dr. Einstein while the backstage crew scoured the theater grounds for Hartung, a longtime VLT performer who died in 2012. 

“He was out back having a cigarette,” Paula Tendick said. “God bless his soul.”

Life in a community theater is knit together with backstage close-calls, actors reading from pages live, homegrown small-scale shows and scrappy theater idiosyncrasies. The Tendicks know that first-hand: They’ve volunteered at the Very Little Theatre since 1989, Paula, now 73, in costumes and Tim, 71, in set-building, fundraising and all manner of odd jobs. 

This year, the couple was recognized as two of the top community theater volunteers in the country. The American Association of Community Theatre honored the Tendicks with the Robert E. Gard Superior Volunteer Award. The annual award recognizes a small number of people over the age of 65 who have volunteered at their theater for at least 25 years.

A few years shy of a century old, the Very Little Theatre is one of the longest-running continuously operating community theaters in the United States. That’s thanks to generations of volunteers like the Tendicks, going back to the eight drama lovers who started it in 1929. 

“We’d all shrivel up and die if we didn’t have each other,” Tim Tendick said. “Realistically, it takes a community to make this.” 

A “Little Theatre” sustained by a big collective effort

Tim Tendick has been called “Mr. VLT” by a few people, owing to his years of service on the board, in various committees and with odd jobs as required. He said he thinks he has built almost every single shelf in the theater. Credit: Lexy Menjivar-Grueskin / The Very Little Theatre

The Tendicks did not meet through a love for theater. He, born and raised in Eugene, had landed in California, gotten divorced and was in search of a place to rent in San Diego in 1980. He rented a room from a co-worker who introduced him to her sister, Paula. 

The two bonded over a shared love of science fiction and fantasy. They saw “The Empire Strikes Back” on an early date, and something clicked. “We’re both weird,” Tim Tendick said.

Four years later, they were married. In 1989, they moved back to Eugene. Tendick was an alumnus of Churchill High School, and his former drama teacher was active at the Very Little Theatre; the Tendicks got involved at his request, starting with “Annie Get Your Gun” the year they moved to town.

Tim Tendick said multiple people have called him “Mr. VLT” over the years from his range of activity in the building: he’s been president of the board twice, treasurer for close to a decade, built props, sets, set up networking systems for the building, served on the development committee, capital projects committee and more. Smaller jobs factor in, too.

“Almost every shelf that you see in the building was built by me,” he said.

“His fingerprints are all over the place,” Paula Tendick later added.

Her work has largely been in the costume side of productions, starting in props but then moving over to wardrobe once she begrudgingly revealed her skills with needle and thread. 

Paula Tendick mostly works in the costume shop for the Very Little Theatre, though she doesn’t like to sew. Credit: Lexy Menjivar-Grueskin / The Very Little Theatre

“I’m a costumer that doesn’t like to sew,” she said. “I will sew, and I know how to do it. I just don’t like it.”

The Tendicks followed in footsteps set almost 100 years ago. VLT was born from a national amateur “little theatre” movement that spread in the early 20th century. It was a response to the New York City-centered stage world. The expansion of railroads led regional talent to search for big city prospects, leaving local theater lovers turning to each other to put on shows. 

Framed photos of volunteers fill a wide wall in the VLT, a testament to contributors’ past. The Tendicks said they see real power in putting together community theater, both for the audience to take in art and for the volunteer staff to find their corners of the theater world. 

“People need the distraction from all of the negativity, especially nowadays,” Paula Tendick said. “They need to feel lifted up. That’s what community theater does for people. It lifts them up, and gives them something to do other than doomscroll on their phones.”

The Very Little Theatre is always looking for more volunteers via their online sign-up form.

Annie Aguiar is the Arts and Culture Correspondent. She has reported arts news and features for national and local newsrooms, including at the Seattle Times, the Washington Post and most recently as a reporting fellow for the New York Times’ Culture desk covering arts and entertainment.