All Aboard the Crazy Train Collaborative

Liberty Hill’s First Community Theater

When Jillan Hanel was 7 years old, she begged her parents to let her audition for a play at her community theater in Brownfield, Texas. Not comfortable with the thought of just dropping her off at rehearsals, her dad decided to join the fun right along with her. “Our relationship really grew and solidified through doing theater together,” Jillan says.

Later, after she founded her own theater company in Austin and got involved alongside her kids in their homeschool co-op’s theater program in Georgetown, Jillan decided that Liberty Hill needed a community theater of its own. “There’s nothing like that out here in our community. I realized I was spending so much time building something beautiful in that community and wanted something like that here in our community.”

COMMUNITY COLLABORATION

After moving to Liberty Hill almost eight years ago, Jillan and her husband bought 12 acres of land and named it the Crazy Train Ranch. “We always say we’re riding the crazy train in our family,” she says with a laugh. It’s also a fitting name for Liberty Hill’s new community theater, the Crazy Train Collaborative, which features an unusual model of collaboration with participating children and their families. “It’s not a dropoff educational program. We are making art together,” she says.

Growing up, Jillan enjoyed seeing the collaboration on stage and behind the scenes among drama enthusiasts at her hometown’s community theater, and she has been bringing that same structure to Liberty Hill as the founder and artistic director of the Crazy Train Collaborative. “We’re looking to provide something our families can participate in together. The goal is to enrich and grow families through theater.”

Having seen theater become a passion for her own children, Jillan is excited to give others the same opportunity.

“You’re getting up in front of someone and singing and dancing, which is nightmare fuel for a lot of people, but when you’re doing it in an environment of support and kindness, your character can really soar to the levels it was meant to.”

The Crazy Train Collaborative welcomes collaborators of all ages, with a $150 cost per child to cover the performance venue rental fee. Family members have the chance to participate in various roles, from performers to costume designers, choreographers, and set builders and painters.

SETTING ROOTS

Their first show in December, a live nativity, was a wonderful success with 250 people attending in spite of it taking place on a rainy day. Jillan is looking forward to their next performance, Splashed: The Musical, loosely based on Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” with parodies of Beatles songs. The Crazy Train Collaborative is still welcoming collaborators until June 15 — however, their most urgent need is for performance space. “We’re having a lot of trouble finding performance space,” she says. “We’re hoping the community of Liberty Hill will find this a valuable resource and collaborate with us for that space.”

Overall, she is hoping this kind of community collaboration will allow the Crazy Train Collaborative to make a home in Liberty Hill. “We want to keep it here in Liberty Hill, so we don’t have to go into Leander/Cedar Park for rehearsal and performance space. It’s very important to us that we set roots here and connect with other community members who also value the arts and want to see that here.” Visit crazytraincollab.com to learn more about the Crazy Train Collaborative.