Rome Little Theatre Presents 'The Glass Menagerie'

Media release: Rome Little Theatre will present its production of "The Glass Menagerie" beginning April 20 at the historic DeSoto Theatre in downtown Rome. In his first role since leaving the Berry College stage 17 years ago, local serviceman and teacher Chris Parker will make his RLT debut in the role of Jim.

Parker was studying theater at Berry College in 1994 when he decided on a different path and left school to enlist in the U.S. Army Reserve. After attending basic training at Fort Jackson, S.C., he went to the Military Intelligence School at Fort Huachuca and was trained to operate ground surveillance systems. When he found out about the 209th Broadcast Public Affairs Detachment in Rome, Chris transferred to become an Army broadcast journalist.

After marrying his wife, Ivey, and deploying to Bosnia as a broadcast journalist, Parker returned to Berry to complete a bachelor's degree in government. In 2004, Chris accepted a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant and left for officer training before deploying to Kuwait as platoon leader of a postal service platoon.

Upon returning from Kuwait in 2006, Parker again returned to school and earned a master's degree in leadership from Shorter College. He also began to teach at North Heights Elementary, where he continues to teach 6th grade math, science, and social studies today. In 2010, Parker deployed to Iraq and served as the broadcast operations officer at the American Forces Network headquarters in Baghdad.

Parker returned from Iraq at the end of 2010 and went back to teaching and his own studies. He is currently working toward an education specialist degree in curriculum and instruction and was recently inducted into Berry's chapter of Kappa Delta Pi, an education honors society. He lives in Rome with Ivey and their daughter, Olivia.

Chris auditioned for "The Glass Menagerie" hoping to work with his former intermediate acting teacher at Berry, Gail Deschamps, who is the director of the play. In his role as Jim, Parker plays a former high school classmate of Michael Hillman's Tom and potential love interest for Nancy Dobbs' Laura. His character is the embodiment of everything Laura's mother, Amanda (played by Mary Walker), desperately wishes for her daughter in a match.

"The character of Jim is great because he is, as Tom says during the play, the most realistic character in the show," Parker said. "He's full of life and vitality, although his good character leads to a not-so-good situation at the end of the play. Tennessee Williams created such wonderful moments in the play; I think audiences will be genuinely moved by the performance."

Parker has also felt right at home with his new theater family, who have made the transition back into theater after 17 years an easy one.

"Michael and Mary and Nancy are all wonderful performers and take such a professional attitude toward the art," Parker said, "and Gail is a great director who knows how to pull the very best performance out of the actors. Everyone with Rome Little Theatre has been very supportive."

"The Glass Menagerie" will be presented the weekends of April 20 and 27, with Friday and Saturday performances at 8 p.m. and Sunday performances at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are available by calling the RLT box office at 706.295.7171. For more information about the show or how to become a volunteer or member, please visit romelittletheatre.com.