Nicholas Piper, Maggie Piper, Lucy Piper and Wendy Piper
Nicholas Piperis the associate artistic director of Barter Theatre in charge of New Play Development and the director of the Appalachian Festival of Plays and Playwrights. Over the last 15 years he has helped develop dozens of new plays including audience favorites “Madame Buttermilk,” “Keep on the Sunny Side,” and this season’s “Winter Wheat” and “We’ll Meet Again.” Also a member of Barter’s Resident Acting Company, Piper includes Georges (“La Cage Aux Folles”), Jack (“Maytag Virgin”), Crumpet (“Santaland Diaries”), Guy Friendly (“Friendly’s Fire”), Rev. Shaw Moore (“Footloose”), Harry Bright (“Mama Mia”) Edward Bloom (“Big Fish”) and Stanley Kowalski (“A Streetcar Named Desire”) among his favorite roles.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee, he began his career at Barter as an intern before becoming a founding member of Barter’s First Light Theatre (now The Barter Players).He has also directed a number of shows at Barter including “Church Basement Ladies,” “Leaving Iowa,” “Winter Wheat,” “The Dixie Swim Club,” “Over the River and Through The Woods,” “Keep on the Sunny Side,” “A Facility For Living,” “The Glass Menagerie,” “Unnecessary Farce,” “Elvis Has Left the Building,” “Showtime at First Baptist,” “I’ll Never Be Hungry Again” and “Lying in State.”
He is so very grateful to be a member of this community, along with his wife, Wendy, and their two daughters Lucy and Maggie. He shares his thoughts on parenting as an actor and during restrictions brought on by coronavirus pandemic.
A! Magazine for the Arts: How does a person balance an acting career with parenting?
Nick Piper: It’s definitely a team effort. Being a resident/repertory company makes Barter particularly unique in that we’re rehearsing during the day and performing at night as opposed to just performing, so our home schedule has to be well coordinated.This becomes a real challenge when both Wendy and I are onstage at the same time because it takes a slew of friends and babysitters to make it possible. Wendy has always been so amazing about lining up babysitters so that we can do this job, and we’ve been so lucky to have had such wonderful babysitters, but it really takes all our friends and family to make it happen.
A! Magazine: Whatare the challenges and the rewards?
Piper: The challenges are that, when we’re both working, we have very little time with our kids.I think that’s true with many families though.Our particular situation is that often we don’t know what our rehearsal schedule is going to be until late the night before, so lining up babysitters, making doctor appointments, attending school and family events can be difficult to make happen.
The rewards are that our children get to grow up in this magical, loving, supportive environment.They get to live in a wonderful community where people take care of each other.And they get to see first-hand that it is possible to live your dream, but living your dream means a lot of sacrifice and a lot of hard work. That’s no different if your dream is to be an actor, a chef, a lawyer, doctor or teacher. I’m glad our children are growing up seeing that every day.
A! Magazine: How are you coping with the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus?
Piper: Well, it’s a challenge as it is for everyone.When I look back on this someday, I think what I’ll be most grateful for is the time I got to spend with my family. For 25 years I’ve been riding the crazy schedule of Barter—if you had told me a year ago that I could stop for a few months and just spend time with my family, I would have taken that offer in a second!
Of course, like many people in and out of the theater industry, we are all very concerned about the future and anxious about when we’ll be able to get back to work.
A! Magazine: From your experience and knowledge of other theaters, is the supportive atmosphere for actors with children common in other theaters?
Piper: I think it is. I think the theater is a place that loves kids in general, and certainly people are very understanding of the challenges presented in trying to raise a child while pursuing a career in the theater.
A! Magazine: What does the environment of Barter and the Abingdon community contribute to the development of your children?
Piper: I often think how lucky I am to have come along in Barter’s history when I did.Rick Rose had a vision of creating world-class theater with a resident company. A place where people could live, buy homes, raise children and still pursue their dream. Katy Brown is dedicated to that vision as well. This is almost unheard of in the theater at large. Wendy and I love the people we get to work with at Barter. We feel so fortunate that our kids get to grow up around such dedicated, hard-working, smart, interesting, caring people.I know many places claim their organization is a family, but in our case it’s true.Several of us in the company are raising children, so we have a mutual understanding of the challenges.But even the company members who aren’t raising a family are so supportive and instrumental in the effort it takes to do this. But I feel we’re most fortunate that this all happens in Abingdon, which is a community we love and which has been very supportive of both the theater and the people who work there. Wendy and I know that we couldn’t do this without the wonderful friends we’ve made in the Abingdon community who have been there for us throughout our career at Barter.
A! Magazine: Give us a brief profile of your children — their ages, interests and pursuits. Are any of them interested in acting? Do you encourage your children to pursue acting?
Lucy is 11 years old and loves acting as well. She has been in several plays at Barter and in Barter’s Youth Academy and has just been cast in her first film. She also loves riding her bike, swimming, reading and playing with her friends.
Maggie is 6 years old and also loves riding her bike, art projects, playing with her doll, and swimming.
We encourage our kids to pursue whatever interests them and try to keep them involved in a wide variety of activities so they can ultimately find the thing they love to do.
A few words from Lucy Piper, who has been on stage at Barter Theatre and is playing Lisa Brennan in the movie “Found.” Barter appearances include “Elf the Musical,” “The Music Man” and the Barter Youth Academy’s production of “The Little Mermaid”.
A! Magazine: When andhow did you become interested in acting?
Lucy: I grew up watching my mommy and daddy act, and it inspired me. I saw how much fun they had doing it. I got to grow up in the theater and I loved it. I knew when I was pretty young I wanted to be up there acting.
A! Magazine: What is it like to be the daughter of actors?
Lucy: There’s a lot of sacrifice, but also a lot of opportunities. I get to see a lot of shows and meet a lot of new people who come from all over the country to be at Barter. But there’s also a lot of babysitters ... when my parents are acting, I don’t get to see them as much as I do now.
A! Magazine to Piper: How do you avoid falling into the “stagemother/father stereotype?”
Piper: I think the best way to avoid this is to make sure that your kids are having fun.It’s not about how many lines they have, or if they’re “the star,” or “the best.”What I want my kids to learn from a theater experience is the hard work and responsibility it takes to do it well. I want them to be a part of a team who works hard to accomplish something, and then experience the joy and excitement of accomplishing it together.And most of all, I want them to have fun.
