Dottie Havlik is an actor, director and playwright.
Dottie Havlik didn’t start out to be an actor or a playwright. Her original career was as a journalist in Texas, but her minor in drama has served her well throughout several career switches.
When she worked as an employee communications coordinator at a medical center in Austin, Texas, she used her theater background to create a puppet show to teach kids how to call 911. She and her family moved to Bristol in 1987. When she became executive director of the Mountain Empire Chapter of the American Red Cross, she used those skills to create a class for students based on a Red Cross program called Check, Call, Care. She wrote skits for Vacation Bible School when she worked at First Presbyterian Church.
“We had after-school drama and dance classes at my preschool in Houston when I was 4. I got to be on the front row when we tap danced to ‘Ballin’ the Jack.’ And I was cast in a little skit – I was disappointed that I had to act with a kid named Walter, not my main crush Keith. Nevertheless, I was hooked. I sang in choir in elementary school and signed up for drama as soon as I could in junior high. In high school, I was in plays and on the forensics team, specializing in humorous interpretation. I minored in drama in community college. At the University of Texas, I participated in the cast of a one-show variety TV program that was funded by the Ford Foundation. As a journalist, I participated in a couple of Gridiron Shows with my fellow news hounds.
“Then I took a break from any involvement with theater – working and raising kids took up my time.
“In the 1990s my daughter, Kate, was a talented all-around artist. She sang in Madrigals at Tennessee High, took art and won some local awards. She auditioned at Theatre Bristol and was often cast as a featured dancer and other roles in musicals.
“The theatre bug bit me again,” Havlik says.
She auditioned for “The Music Man” at Theatre Bristol in 1996 and began doing one or two shows a year – acting and directing. She also worked with Radio Theatre Bristol, both at its beginning and in its revival during Covid. Havlik did voice acting, wrote scripts (both adaptive and original), and directed for Radio Theatre Bristol and the interim “Don’t Touch That Dial!” on WETS-FM for eight years. The adaptive scripts for DTTD were used by a publishing company in a curriculum that compared the original short story or fable to the script to teach different methods of storytelling. After acting and directing, she expanded her writing from radio scripts to stage plays.
Then came River’s Way, and Theatre Bristol’s collaboration with them. Tom Hanlon, executive director at River’s Way, had talked with Theatre Bristol Executive Director Samantha Gray about producing a play with the two groups.
“She mentioned it at a board meeting, and I volunteered to explore options. It turns out that, from what we can discover, most theater groups have programs in which the differently abled participants merely shadow the company’s actors or have very little direct involvement on stage. On the other hand, publishers of traditional plays were not willing to let Theater Bristol alter their copyrighted plays for special needs.
“I said, ‘I’ll just write one.’ I started simply, with ‘Three Times Three’ – bears, billy goats gruff and little pigs. It was too short, so I added three little kittens. Still too short. So, I added knock-knock jokes and silly songs between skits. Then I went to auditions during River’s Way after school program at the YMCA. I wanted to meet the cast and see their abilities before I finished writing. The participants were reluctant, to say the least. They weren’t sure about being in a play at a strange place with strange people. I explained that we were going to have fun, and there would be no pressure to do anything they didn’t want to do. And that the people who came to see us would be people who loved us, and who wanted to love our show. They decided to give it a try. Tom Hanlon and Rivers Way program director Matt Kyle are the best collaborators ever, and they have added immensely to the success of this program,” she says.
Havlik describes herself as an introvert, but says that acting has allowed her to assume the role of an extrovert which helps her succeed in her careers.
“When we were considering moving from big Texas to a smaller town, I liked Bristol because it had the arts. I wanted my children to know and love the arts, partly because of how they enriched my own life, but also because one can learn so much about life and people through participating in reading, writing, music, painting, composing and myriad other creative treasures. When we looked at Bristol, we saw that Theatre Bristol was doing great musicals, Bristol Ballet had ‘The Nutcracker’ and another classic each year. The Junior League sponsored a school art exhibition. Abingdon had the Highlands Festival and the Barter.
“As the years have passed, our little corner of Appalachia has become a destination for people who love all kinds of arts. All three of my children have productive jobs outside the arts. What a rich, rich heritage we have grown to enjoy. I’m so glad we came here.
‘To say I’m honored to receive this award seems like such a cliché because I just run around doing whatever I like to do and having a whole bunch of fun doing it, But I am honored, because I view the arts as a vital part of our society that helps us see issues more clearly, and helps people express thoughts and feelings that they couldn’t communicate any other way. AAME’s promotion of the arts and artists – of all types – is an important factor in seeing the arts survive in our community. Thank you,” she says.
