Page 66 - LIN November 2022 Issue

Volunteering with
THE NAPLES

PLAYERS

through the Decades

SPOTLIGHT

ON JUDY

SCRIBNER!

Judy (left) in Always a Bridesmaid
by Lauren Speirs

It’s hard to imagine 5th Avenue South without all the glamorous bars, restaurants, boutiques, I didn’t know what I was coming back into.
and 365 days of glitzy Christmas lights. It’s also hard to think back to The Naples Players (TNP) Each time I came back it would be for a show.
before their state of the art Sugden Theatre was built. Yet, most long term residents can tell you I would get the bug (to perform) again and
audition.”
both had humble beginnings! A person of many talents, Judy also works
concessions. “I ushered briefly before I started
Judy Scribner has been in Naples since 1974 theater — The Kon Tiki — on Goodlette Road working at the bar. Occasionally I help with
when “5th Avenue was nothing like it is now. to turn it into a more traditional theatre. ushering if needed. The group of people at
It was all family owned stores. We had banks, “There was a big difference when they the front of house all like each other and get
a pharmacy, and a telephone store. I think opened the theatre on 5th. In Goodlette along — we know we have folks we can just
we had a parade too.’’ No stranger to theatre Road (renovated movie theater), people who laugh with.”
and performing, Judy joined the Charleston worked there did everything, there were no As far as her experiences with TNP, Judy
Opera Company in college where she “never different departments.” In TNP’s new theatre, is amazed by “the display of loyalty that our
had to sing opera!” there were production, costume, and lighting audiences have for us.” During Always a
Amazingly, Judy has been involved with departments — even administrative space. Bridesmaid, the air conditioning went out
TNP since the days that the company oper- When Judy arrived at the Sugden Theatre, and 99% of the audience stayed in the Tobye
ated out of a small storefront in a strip mall “we realized we were just the cast” and she (theatre) even though it became hot. Of
on Davis Blvd. Her first production was in joked, “I guess we better learn our lines!” course, the cast continued to perform. “I’ve
the early 1980’s when she debuted in South In 2000, Judy took the stage again in Lost had so many experiences — I’ve seen cast
Pacific. Back then, the company performed at in Yonkers and took another break until 2019 members or technicians who have clearly run
Gulfview Middle School. A few years later in when she performed in Always a Bridesmaid. into a problem on stage and they just keep
the mid 1980’s, TNP renovated an old movie “With the gaps, things changed every time so going. The tech people I’ve had the opportunity

66 Life in Naples November 2022