Taking the helm

Greg Thompson, the new Producing Artistic Director, at the Ocala Civic Theatre on East Silver Springs Boulevard in Ocala on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2022.

When she met Greg Thompson, the late-great Mary Britt — who, before she died in 2019, had been involved with the Ocala Civic Theatre for more than three decades, including a number of those as executive director — regarded the then-newbie with a suspicious side eye because he seemed too young to have all the experience listed in his resume.

At the time, in 1989, she would have never imagined that Thompson would officially sign on to oversee OCT’s casts and crews as producing artistic director in 2023.

Thompson had initially joined Britt and her team to oversee the theater’s 50th-anniversary production, “50 Grand.” When he first chatted in person with Britt about the anniversary show, he said something did not sit quite right, so he tactfully questioned her in his genteel Southern accent.

 “She laughed, and she responded, ‘You know, I was expecting an older man because your resume is really impressive,’” Thompson recalled. “To her, I seemed like a jerk who’d lied on their resume. Needless to say, it was an interesting first conversation.”

Fortunately for Thompson, he and Britt would go on to have a close working relationship.

The theater, founded in 1950 by the Marion Players, became known as the Ocala Civic Theatre (OCT) in 1970. The current OCT venue next to the Appleton Museum of Art opened in October 1988. (Longtime leader Britt passed away in the spring of 2019 and was succeeded for a few years by Katrina Ploof.)

Thompson clocked in a lot of time with OCT since taking his first fateful Greyhound bus from Lighthouse Point, Fla., to Ocala.

Now that he has assumed the mantle as OCT’s producing artistic director, he isn’t putting off making moves as he transitions to his new role. He and his partner Michael Mehring, however, are still deciding where to live.

To the OCT board of directors, Thompson seemed like the obvious choice. The vote was unanimous. The longtime thespian hit that sweet spot between offering several years of experience with the theater and demonstrating a penchant for bringing new ideas to fruition. 

“We felt that Greg was a breath of fresh air,” said board president James P. Hilty Sr., who also is president of Ocala City Council. Hilty praised Thompson for his experience with the theater as well as the positive energy he hopes the new leader will bring to the role. 

“We were encouraged by the ideas that he wants to bring to the theater as well as the talents that he’s gained over the years,” added Hilty.

Outside of Ocala, Thompson’s work has encompassed dramatic theater, musical theater, opera, light opera, film, television, dance, voiceover, academic theater, corporate theater and cruise ship and theme park entertainment.

He grew up in a musical household in Tennessee and, during his teens, in North Carolina, so he started performing at a young age. He sang at church and his love of show business grew from there.

An Eclectic Resume

Beyond too many shows and films to list here, Thompson has worked in large-scale corporate and showbiz productions. He served for six years as a resident performer for Miami’s Mega Entertainment, where he was seen in numerous productions, including “An Extraordinary Evening with Sophia Loren and Friends” to support AMFAR.

When asked why his resume is so varied, Thompson attributed his eclectic work experience to endless curiosity.

“I’m a little bit of an odd preacher in that my experience base is really kind of bizarre,” he said with a laugh. “It doesn’t match a lot of people’s but that was because I’m just so curious, you know. It was not like I set out to do this or that or the other per se, but it was like, ‘Oh, there’s an audition for cruise ships. Well, I need a job. Sure. I’ll go do that.’”

His brother J. Lynn Thompson, a conductor, was instrumental in bringing him to Georgia’s capital, where he led the Atlanta Lyric Theatre for 10 seasons as the resident stage director and choreographer.

Some of Greg’s prominent stage roles include Don Lockwood (the Gene Kelly role, performing the original choreography) in “Singin’ In The Rain,” Joe/Josephine (the Tony Curtis role) in “Some Like It Hot,” Judas in “Jesus Christ Superstar,” the emcee in “Cabaret,” Billy Crocker in “Anything Goes” (four productions) and Curly (dream ballet) in “Oklahoma!”

His film work includes more than 70 studio and independent features, shorts and series. He plays Darrell Waltrip in the highly acclaimed ESPN original film “3: The Dale Earnhardt Story,” starring Barry Pepper, and as FDR’s photographer in the multi-Emmy-Award-winning HBO original film “Warm Springs.” “Dawson’s Creek” fans will remember him as Peter, the slimy film producer, and, in “One Tree Hill,” he served in the recurring role of Dr. Adams.

As a filmmaker and screenwriter, Thompson currently has several scripts in development/optioned. In 2006 he debuted his first efforts as director/producer /screenwriter with “Swimming to The Moon,” the first of his six short films, which won the Audience Choice award at the Rome International Film Festival, followed by “Down a Dark Road,” which earned him the Mason Dixon Best Filmmaker award. The most recent, “MINE,” was nominated for Best Short Film in its debut festival and won two audience-choice and three juried awards for Best Short in its first seven festival screenings.

Thompson’s work on stage and screen has paired him with such notable performers as Kenneth Branagh, Ewan McGregor, Renee Zellweger, Jack Black, Sophia Loren and Melanie Griffith.

He brought the silver screen to Silver Springs while collaborating with Laurie Zink on the Silver Springs International Film Festival (2014-18). 

Thompson served as festival director for the Ocala Film Foundation and Zink was executive director. The pair grew the festival from a few days to a week, more than doubling the film premieres and events. Sadly, it couldn’t continue due to a lack of local funding, but Zink said she’s confident that Thompson’s power of persuasion will overcome stumbling blocks going forward with OCT. 

Zink, who also is the development and community outreach director at IHMC Ocala, sits on the OCT board but recused herself from voting on the artistic director position due to her ongoing friendship with Thompson.

“Greg is almost horribly passionate about what he does,” Zink said. “He wants the best for everyone involved, for everyone to have the best experience. He likes to educate people about the arts. He doesn’t want things to stay like they were in the past. His perspective of the quote-unquote old days at the theater is only going to enhance what he is able to do in the future.”

At the OCT

In recent years, OCT officials have recruited Thompson as a guest director, choreographer and perennial instructor, most recently as the choreographer for “Hands on a Hardbody.”

Other past OCT shows he directed and/or choreographed include “The Music Man,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?” and several others.

This season, he will direct and choreograph OCT’s 2022-23 closer, Disney’s “Newsies.”

As for what Thompson potentially brings to Ocala theatergoers and thespians, many might say it is a knack for nurturing talent and self-esteem.

In the past few years, for example, he has taught theater and dance at the University of Texas. He also has instructed courses in directing, acting and musical theater.

“One of the biggest lessons I learned along the way — and it doesn’t mean that it works for everybody, but just for my own practice — is if you can inspire confidence in people, they will achieve things they didn’t know they could,” he said.

Through his creation of the Arts for All summer youth program in 1991 and his teaching stints at numerous OCT workshops, Thompson has shown a knack for expanding the local talent pool, a vital skill in community theater.

Getting more people to the theater and creating a more recognizable brand for OCT is another of his priorities.

“We have got to create a name that people actually have a clue about what we do,” he said.

Greg Thompson, the new Producing Artistic Director, at the Ocala Civic Theatre on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2022.

“More and more people don’t want to spend money just to go to the theater,” he added. “They spend the money on a whole experience. They’re thinking, ‘Why would I leave work and drive over there when I can just go home and watch my giant television with my fabulous surround sound system and get comfortable and have an experience.’”

Creative touches such as onstage multimedia enhancements and the grand piano in the lobby would ostensibly create a unique experience that will bring in new theatergoers.

“I want to help OCT move toward a place where it’s somewhere that people want to go,” Thompson added.

To that end, the new producing artistic director said he plans on working with the OCT board to engage the community in some new projects as well as a retread or two, including the Brick City Cabaret at the Marion Cultural Alliance’s Brick City Center for the Arts in February.

He spearheaded the event series at the Brick back in 2006 and is in rehearsals for a redux of the shows that he hopes will take on a more sophisticated, upscale ambiance.

“I think that you empower an audience,” Thompson said. “You also teach an audience. They can learn to see theater a little differently from what they may have seen at OCT in the past. For instance, we’re bringing in an amazing designer for ‘Outside Mullingar’ and looking at doing more high-end projection work, which has never been seen there.”

When asked if Ocala was ready for performances that are more contemporary and cutting-edge, Thompson hinted that something new and different might be in the works.

“I think Ocala is totally ready for it, and it’s something we’re discussing right now,” he said. “I don’t want to go into it because I don’t want to be premature, but there are some surprises coming and I think they are going to be really solid.”

For more information about the Ocala Civic Theatre’s season offerings, visit ocalacivictheatre.com.