‘A Really Cool & Ambitious Idea’

Ocala Civic Theatre’s 70th anniversary season is shaping up to be one for the record book. Literally. As in Guinness.

By Richard Anguiano • Photo by Steve Floethe

To mark seven decades of serving fans of the dramatic arts in Marion County, the Ocala Civic Theatre is planning an attempt at the Guinness World Record for “longest marathon theater performance” with a nonstop string of performances to begin at 7pm Sunday, March 29, and end at noon, Thursday, April 2.

If successful, the feat would span 79 hours and break the current record established by Lamb’s Players Theatre of Coronado, California, in May 2014. The Guinness World Records website—guinnessworldrecords.com—lists the mark to beat at 76 hours 18 minutes and 25 seconds.

And if you’ve always aspired to be part of a world record, here’s your chance: Ocala Civic Theatre is seeking help from the public for the attempt, which it has dubbed “79 For 70.” While OCT is in the process of selecting 20 actors scheduled to perform in shifts during the marathon, it also needs witnesses, timers, audience members, even volunteers to prepare (or pay for) meals for all involved.

Can’t be there to take part? You can still sponsor an audience member for “79 For 70,” which will also serve as a fundraiser.

“There isn’t anything we couldn’t use you for,” says Katrina Ploof, artistic director of OCT.

Katrina said Larry Kiernan, the theater’s marketing director, came to her with the “fantastic idea” for the record attempt.

“I sat there for about 10 seconds and I couldn’t come up with a reason not to, other than, ‘Boy, that’s going to be a lot of work,’” remembers Katrina. “But we’re a theater. Working hard is what we do.”

Larry offers a brief explanation. “Seventy is a big deal,” he says. “We were looking for a creative way to make a big splash and involve the entire community.”

Anyone interested in participating may call the box office at (352) 236-2274 and ask for Katrina or Larry, or go to ocalacivictheatre.com/contact and send a message through a fillable form.

Onstage, the record attempt is to involve 20 actors.

“They will sleep in shifts and perform in shifts,” says Katrina. “They will get eight full hours in every 24 where they’re not participating in any way. Then, they have to all have one hour off [after each performance].”

The rehearsal room at OCT will house 20 sleeping cubicles for the performers, according to Katrina, who says they will not be allowed to leave the premises for the duration. “Actors are hardy,” she continues. “A lot of them are dancers. They work out. They take good care of themselves.”

Just as important to the record attempt, if not more so, are the contributions of people offstage. The audience is to play an especially pivotal role in the record attempt: Guinness stipulates that no fewer than 20 people are to be in the audience at all times in order to qualify for the record.

“It’s pretty fun because you can do anything you want,” Katrina says of the audience’s role. “You can read. You can bring your knitting. You can bring your pillow and sleep. You can bring an iPad and watch a movie—with your earphones on. You can be engaged if you want to, but you don’t have to be.” Dave Schlenker, a recent addition to OCT’s board, says the biggest need at the moment is for audience members.

“Everybody seems to like the idea, but we need to see more people actually signing up,” says Schlenker, who covered OCT as a journalist during a 27-year career at the Ocala Star-Banner. “We do have one group that’s planning on doing a slumber-party theme, showing up in jammies. We’d like to see more of that.”

Katrina says audience members will raise funds in a manner similar to March of Dimes walk-a-thons, with sponsors pledging an amount for each hour the spectator is in the audience. “Then you collect that and you come sit in the audience,” she says. “It all goes to the theater.”

The plan is for OCT to have everything firmed up—lists of actors, audience members, timekeepers, witnesses, donors—no less than two weeks before the March 29 launch of “79 For 70.” “It sounds like a really cool and ambitious idea,” says Schlenker. “Then you sit down and you’re thinking, ‘Oh my gosh. This is beyond ambitious. It’s borderline insane.’ But it’s been very, very fun planning it.’”

The record-setting fundraiser is just one of the novel ways Ocala Civic Theatre is marking its 70th year—another innovation this year is a “season reveal” party open to the public.

At the same time, the gala year also includes a somber anniversary. Mary Britt, the theater’s longtime executive director, who had been associated with OCT for more than 30 years, died last April 3.

Katrina, 63, whose career included a stint as an actress in New York, moved to Central Florida in the 1980s and worked as a freelance director for about 30 years. She directed as a freelancer at OCT for eight seasons and got to know the iconic director.

“Before we lost Mary, she contacted me back in the winter [of 2018] and asked me if I would be available, if things got challenging, to come up and help,” Katrina says. “She was ill at that time. As thoughtful and loving and devoted to this theater as she was, she was really thinking about what the future was going to look like.” From Mary’s death in April through September, Katrina served OCT in an interim leadership role. Meanwhile, OCT’s board reorganized its leadership structure. In October, the board named Katrina to the new, permanent post of artistic director. The board is conducting a nationwide search for another new leadership position, though, that of business and development director.

Katrina chokes up when asked for her impressions after almost a year at OCT. She sums it up in one word: resilience.

“One definition of resilience is the ability to regain your shape after a lifechanging event,” says Katrina.

“Another meaning for the word resilience,” she continues, “is the ability of something to reimagine itself in a form that retains the beauty of the first form, but that is stronger, right? That is what I think of OCT, the staff, the volunteers, the community that supports it.”