Family Theatre: Pride and Prejudice
A Look Inside Columbus’s Family Theatre and Its Production of Pride and Prejudice
By Andrew McCrory
Family Theatre has long been a place where creativity, connection and storytelling thrive. As a community theater, it brings Columbus residents together to make art and build relationships along the way. This season’s production of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice offers a reminder of why those spaces matter.
Mikayla Hutchinson, the show’s director, has been part of Family Theatre since early childhood. She sees the production as a fit for the company’s mission: bringing “people from all walks of life and all different backgrounds and ages” together to put on a show.
Austen’s tale of love, misunderstanding and forgiveness gives the cast a story that resonates beyond the stage. For Hutchinson, its themes of patience and empathy reflect the environment Family Theatre works to create every day.
“We’re truly a family,” she says. “I’ve always connected with the timeless message of the story.”
First impressions are a central part of Pride and Prejudice, and Hutchinson sees a lesson there for audiences as well. “Sometimes our first impressions can be the wrong one,” she says. Taking the time to listen can change how we see someone.
That spirit reaches into the audience. When I watched the show on opening weekend, I heard laughter before the performance even started. Returning members and audience members welcomed my girlfriend and me like we were already family. I can still remember the smell of popcorn and the conversations around us. It felt comfortable and warm before anyone stepped onstage.
A Director Shaped by Family Theatre
Hutchinson began performing at Family Theatre when she was four years old. She grew up within its walls and, over time, found opportunities to lead and challenge herself creatively. The people around her supported that growth.
“I’ve directed The Wizard of Oz and actually had the opportunity to write and direct a production a couple of summers ago,” she says. She credits Family Theatre with trusting her to take on that work: “I wouldn’t have had that opportunity if they hadn’t said, ‘here’s the stage. You write it, and we’re going to produce it!’”
Now Hutchinson offers that same trust to her cast. She wants to honor the characters people recognize from Austen’s novel while giving the performers room to make the roles their own.
“I want to see the characters step off the pages onto the stage, but I want my cast to bring a piece of themselves to these characters,” she says. Throughout the production, she has watched them do just that.
Family Theatre plans to continue exploring familiar stories this season. Pride and Prejudice follows The Wizard of Oz, and Hutchinson says upcoming productions include And Then They Came for Me, Madeline’s Christmas and Agatha Christie’s The Secret Adversary. The shows may differ in tone, but each gives the company another chance to bring people together around a story.
What Makes Family Theatre Different?
Family Theatre is built by the people who perform, volunteer and return to watch its shows. Its productions draw on familiar works, but the cast and crew bring their own experiences and personalities to them. That combination makes even a classic story feel connected to the people telling it here.
Hutchinson praises the talent and commitment of her cast and crew. Community theater asks people to give their evenings and weekends to a production alongside their everyday responsibilities. At Family Theatre, performers have ranged from young children to a woman in her 90s. Each arrives with a different background and something to contribute.
“Truly you can walk down the street and look to your left, and it could be a person you’ve seen in the show,” Hutchinson says. Some performers in Pride and Prejudice work at Midtown Coffee House; others teach in public schools. After their workdays, they come to the theater and enter Austen’s world alongside the audience.
They are people living ordinary lives who spend their evenings becoming part of extraordinary stories. For someone watching, recognizing a face onstage adds another layer to the experience. The story belongs to the cast, but it also feels close to the community gathered around them.
A Place to Belong
Family Theatre is more than a venue for the people who have found a home there. It’s a place where neighbors become castmates, friendships grow through rehearsals and audiences share the experience of a story unfolding in front of them. You don’t have to be a longtime regular to feel welcome.
Whether you’re a lifelong Austen fan or have never seen Pride and Prejudice, this production is a chance to support local artists and spend an evening with the people who bring these stories to life. As I discovered on opening weekend, the welcome begins before the curtain rises.
Pride and Prejudice concludes this weekend at Family Theatre, 2100 Hamilton Road, Columbus. The remaining performances are Friday, September 25, and Saturday, September 26, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, September 27, at 2:30 p.m. Reserve tickets at familytheatre.org. Seating is general admission, and the theater doors open 30 minutes before each performance.