Rob Zapple -- You THESPIAN, You!!! And Other Tales of Wilmington, North Carolina Getting Its COMMUNITY BACK:

 

Tony Rivenbark

A bust of Thalian Hall director Tony Rivenbark, the former executive director, sits in the theater’s lobby. (Photo courtesy Thalian Hall)

It might seem strange that Wilmington is mourning Tony Rivenbark's death at the young age of 74 -- three years older than I. In early 2011, when I was new to living in Wilmington (although still living in my car), I went first to Tony to see if I could volunteer to help with Thalian Hall -- I'd been an usher and ran the snack bar at Stone Mountain's Art Center Station community theater for a few years, until Colin Powell's people had to get me to Puerto Vallarta for Political Exile in May, 2010.

Well, Tony did not give me the time of day, and was not at all impressed that I had acted in community theater in about five productions in Cape May, NJ -- and Fairbanks, Alaska -- in the mid-1970s, and worked as Tennessee Williams's assistant in 1981 and 1982. But in FAIRNESS, I HAD to have had really bad Complex PTSD, then. 

This was shortly before Lawyer David Nash had me JAILED, prosecuted, and falsely convicted of Cyber-Stalking him -- because I kept blogging about the Hard-Drug Trafficking in his Costello's gay piano bar on Princess Street. And after Defender Jennifer Harjo took over and I was released after 2.3 months when I appealed to have a JURY TRIAL, I met Patricia Sinatra on Water Street -- and she sat me down for over three hours and told me how she engineered the sale of their BankAmerica to Kenan-controlled NationsBank in 1998. She also asked me to help get her son, Danny, off his Meth/Adderall addiction -- and I failed her.

FIRST, I was so harassed by drug-runners calling me a Pedophile, and caught up in all kinds of online and in-person arguments with people who claimed they could PROVE I'M NOT A BLOOD KENAN -- and the Wilmington Star News published all of their MOCKERY online -- encouraging them further.

I had spoken with Shane Fernando at the Wilson Center, too -- he very friendly and he directed me to whom I should speak with -- but I was SO HARASSED by Wilmingtonians claiming to be CHRISTIANS, but mostly they were just DRUG ADDICTS, I could not pursue that.

I KNEW the outline of Tony Rivenbark's AMAZING ACCOMPLISHMENTS -- which the Port City Daily article mentions. But I'd had NO IDEA that Rob Zapple was an actor or director!!! I was scared to DEATH when I saw that a New Hanover County Commissioner would take over in the interim!!!

And I see my Cincinnati-connected buddy, Terry Espy, is HEAD of Thalian Hall's Board of Trustees -- 

And I ALSO see that Tony Rivenbark oversaw SEVERAL renovations of the historic space -- including the main hall SEATING in 2010. So, NOW, no one needs to worry if they got the seat where Sherman Lee Criner diddled the vagina of a five year old girl (about 2005), and the Wilmington Star News actually reported that Wilmington Police talked the girl's father out of filing charges -- because Sherman's WIFE, Sandra Alice (Ray) Criner, was HEAD of the County Republicans and she and Sherman were two of Wilmington's MOST DEVOUT CHRISTIANS!!! 

While living in Puerto Vallarta, I got this photo FRESH off Sherman Lee Criner's Facebook Page -- and when I BLOGGED IT and sent it to all of WILMINGTON'S POLITICAL ELITE, Sandra Ray PROMPTLY divorced Sherman Lee's pecker !!!

https://theweathercontinues.blogspot.com/2016/11/a-funny-thing-happened-in-new-hanover.html

https://portcitydaily.com/community-and-events/2022/07/19/thalian-halls-executive-director-passes-away-county-commissioner-to-take-over-in-the-interim/

TONIGHT -- I see Wilmington's COMMUNITY coming back together!!!

I have TONS MORE to blog about -- but I'd MEANT to take completely off today. But this news just had to get out tonight.

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