Today we’d like to introduce you to Connie Gatlin.
Hi Connie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
As a sophomore at MTSU in 1970, I came home for the summer telling my parents I wanted to drop out. I felt I was wasting their money…I just wasn’t thrilled about college. My sweet ole’ daddy looked across the table at the local steakhouse and asked me a question that changed my life. “Well, whyn’t you go back over there and take some of them the-A-ter classes…you kinda’ like ‘at stuff…” I did. Beginning at BCHS in Cleveland, I began to create theatre where there really had not been much of a theatrical presence.
2025. After years of creative directing and developing a strong following, I am now leading a group that is making great strides toward a Visual and Performing Arts Center for our city and county. For a number of reasons, Cleveland has grown up without an actual arts center. We have the promise of a piece of property…we have an architect and conceptual drawings…we have a committed board and we have the support of the city government.
It’s been quite a journey.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Looking back, theatre spaces have been the biggest challenge. My first teaching/directing at BCHS was in one of those ‘little theatres’, an architectural fad in the early ’70’s when that school was built. Adequate staging has been an adventure. Outdoors at Red Clay State Park….ancient postage stamp stages in older school auditoriums…adjusting to the local Lee University rules and regs for their best-proscenium-in-the-area stage…finding well-suited theatre spaces has been the biggest challenge.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
After a truly satisfying career as an educational theatre and show choir director, I became involved with the ‘start-up’ of the now Museum Center at 5ive Points. After birthing the idea of 7 living history characters that could interact with patrons and tell the story of the Ocoee Region, I was hired to help build the museum, create videos and story lines for the characters, write the words that now live in the exhibit, and conduct the programming for MC5.
Then came the opportunity to purchase a local dance center, and we jumped into Cleveland City Ballet….now entering year 90 of continuous operation. Having raised a dancer – who became a professional dancer/actor/performer – I took my love for dance to grow this studio into a thriving performance group with a safe, welcoming atmosphere and high quality instruction.
I was founding president of an arts committee for the local Chamber of Commerce, and in 2019, that grew into a new 501c3 local arts organization with the long-range goal of a visual and performing arts center for Cleveland and Bradley County. Leading this group called the Art Is Here Partnership has been a true learning and growing experience and it challenges me everyday…but we are ‘moving the air’ in Cleveland. This endeavor becomes more of a reality with every passing week.
I am still proud of those Museum characters, their stories and their integral role in the history of our region. Although totally fictional, they embody and reflect the persons and personalities who inhabit our little corner of the universe.
I am still proud of those show choir students who went on the be performers at DisneyLand and DisneyWorld and Dollywood.
But I guess I’m most proud of my daughter, the dancer…the touring actor…the Rockette…and just and all-around great human.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I was a performer. My Mamaw in Sweetwater had this large front porch with deep, wide steps leading down to the yard, with a red light just in front of the house. After lunch each day, my six-year old self would don one of Mamaw’s dresses and sing and dance for the captive audiences in their cars at the red light. My Papaw, however, did not approve. His habit each day after lunch was to step out back to the woodshed, roll his paper cigarettes from that red can of tobacco, and smoke his way through the afternoon.
I had to be very careful to cease my shenanigans before he came back to the front porch to read the paper, because if he caught me singin’ and dancin’ it was katy-bar-the-door! I’ve heard him yell for the whole block to hear – “Noleee – come git this chile – she’s a’goin’ to HAYELL!
Contact Info:
- Website: clevelandcityballet.com / artisherepartnership.com
- Facebook: clevelandcityballet / artisherepartnership
