Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending the closing performance of The Encore Musical Theatre Company’s production of “Always…Patsy Cline,” which was a near-perfect, two-hour romp through approximately two dozen of the country superstar’s songs. It was easy to see why most of the four-weekend run was sold out: Cline’s memorable tunes and Ted Swindley’s script were given life by a superb team of actors (Emmi Veinbergs and Sonja Marquis) and musicians (under the direction of Dan Mikat) whose skills and love of the material were evident from the moment the lights went up on the first number. Because they were having blast, so too was the audience – so much so that I expected the woman next to me to burst into song at any moment. (Thankfully, she didn’t, but you could tell she really, really wanted to!)

But it was a conversation with development director Chuck Colby during intermission that got me thinking.

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