Entertaining, Educating and Reaching Out to the Community since 1980

Introducing our 2015 Season...
Celebrating 35 Years of River Region Community Theater


In Memory of
Patrick Brett Hale
In 'Second Samuel', Pamela Parker's wonderful play about tolerance and love, one of the characters points to the heavens and says "when it's dark enough, you can see the stars."  Today our Depot stage is dark. Patrick Hale, Depot actor, director and board member, passed away this week at the age of 44. Patrick began performing with the Depot when he was nine years old and was a vital part of the history of our community theatre for the past 35 years.  A well known attorney, Patrick made theatre and music his avocation.  Some of his best known roles included an Elvis impersonator in The Wedding From Hell, the Governor of Texas in Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Dennis Sanders in Smoke on the Mountain.  Patrick also was a part of the award-winning Second Samuel productions that traveled to Rochester, New York for the national community theatre festival. He was recognized for his performance of Mansel Dean with a Best Supporting Actor Award.

While he will be greatly missed, his theatre family is fortunate to have many rich memories of his work on and off stage. Patrick possessed the talent to make our audiences laugh and cry on the turn on a dime.  The late theatre critic Allen Swafford reviewed one of our plays and said " Patrick Hale could make reading from the phone book funny!"  His rich voice could be heard from our stage as far as Gold Star Park. Backstage, Patrick was a trooper. Beloved by those he worked with, he encouraged young artists to keep working and honing their talents.  He was a friend to all who entered our doors. Our world is a little less vibrant without him here.
Thank you Patrick for being our star.

Our continued prayers are with his loving family. Visitation will be in the First United Methodist Church fellowship hall on Sunday, January 11 at,2:00 p.m. Services will be held at First United Methodist Church at 3:00 p.m. Graveside services will follow immediately after at the City of Wetumpka Cemetery. at the family's request, ,memorials may be mailed to
PO BOX 1031, Wetumpka, Al 36092