Sanders is leaving Graham Regional Theatre
After 20 years, Graham Regional Theatre [GRT] director, Christian Sanders, will be leaving the theater to pursue more time with family. Wife and invaluable member of the GRT, Stephanie Sanders, will be teaching at the Fine Arts Academy in White Settlement starting next school year.
By invitation of the theater, Sanders first came to the GRT to perform in the summer play, “The Music Man.” While in Graham, the location of GRT, Sanders says he fell in love with the community, GRT, the people and the Graham Memorial Theatre. Sanders said, “I just felt like this is a wonderful town that supports the arts, combined with that small-town feel and atmosphere. I just thought this is a place that I would love to raise my daughter.”
Sanders said his daughter Faris—the only daughter at the time—was a newborn when the production of “The Music Man” was being performed. When it was time to go onstage, they brought Faris right onstage with them. Only weeks old, Faris began the family trade of acting.
When asked what Sanders’ favorite play was, he replied that his favorite was any play that included family; being able to perform with family was the best part about being in the theater.
GRT kept inviting Sanders back to perform and help with the technical side of the theater more frequently until he and Stephanie decided they wanted to move to Graham to make the community their new home.
“My wife and I came out (to Graham) and we started teaching private lessons, acting, singing, juggling, magic, voice and anything we could to make a living out here in Graham. My wife started teaching full time, and I came out here and finished my degree at Midwestern State University. We just fell in love with the area and absolutely just thought this was where we wanted to be,” Sanders said. Sanders began training as an actor at Texas State
Sanders began training as an actor at Texas State University. Before finishing, he became an equity actor at Casa Manana for a few years, and he acted in a few different local television shows, wrote for a few sketches’ comedy shows, and auditioned for Broadway shows in New York. Still, Sanders says he knew he wanted to stay in Texas.
“I didn’t want to move away from my family. I wanted a family, and it was important to be staying close to where I know. I didn’t want to spend six months a year away from my family [while] on tour; and that was kind of the next step that I was going to have to do, and I didn’t want to do [it],” Sanders said.
During that time, before moving on to Direct the GRT, Sanders learned a great deal about all aspects of running a theater, including lighting, costume design, set design, directing, acting, financial backing of a play, and just about everything and anything needed to make a theater successful.
The GRT Board formed around the same time he began performing in Graham and helping with other aspects of GRT throughout the first three summers. Sanders designed most of the systems and said he built the systems so others could learn how to operate them easily. Sanders didn’t want any one person to be needed to run any one job at the GRT. Sanders built systems like lighting, for example, so that anyone could easily learn it; Sanders says he created the GRT theater to run without him in mind so the theater would always live on, not counting on any one person for the show to go on.
As of now, the board is set to rotate in a new director of the GRT after Sanders leaves this summer. Sanders said he is just a phone call away for any help that may be needed.
Sanders closed the interview by saying, “We shouldn’t have this (a great theater like the GRT in such a small town) and yet we do, the reason we have this is because of the support of the people that have supported it. That brings in the talent for the people that want to be here…I was watching the folks who are local and have learned from the folks that have been here and it just grows, and the talent grows and fosters more talent…Just know that this [GRT] is important to keep and have. I’m proud to have been part of it and everyone who’s ever been here as part of it know that it is an important thing to me.”