On July 16, 2023, the audience at Straughn Auditorium at Commonwealth University—Mansfield watched the end of Hamilton-Gibson Productions’ summer musical, Mary Poppins, when George and Winifred Banks finally got a peaceful moment together. “I think you should come and dance with me,” said Mr. Banks. As a waltz rose from the pit, Mrs. Banks gave him her hand and gazed lovingly into his eyes. Was it all an act? As they danced, applause erupted. Matt Huels and Julie Martin, who’d met at the first rehearsal, knew this was the end of their scripted marriage, but, unbeknownst to the other, neither wanted their show to close. Matt was determined to see if he could write a happy ending for them.

Who says romance is dead? It can be as easy as 1-2-3:

1. Audition for community theater.

2. Talk to the castmate who piques your interest.

3. Find the nerve to stay connected once the curtain comes down.

Many folks search for love online, and, when they do swipe right to choose a potential mate, they meet a stranger. It can take weeks before a new beau’s true colors pop. “It used to be the way to meet people was you went to church or joined a bowling league,” says Gabe Hakvaag, one of the directors at Hamilton-Gibson Productions in Wellsboro. “I tell people, ‘Come to HG and audition for plays.’” In the past decade, seven couples have met through Hamilton-Gibson and gotten married.

Thomas Putnam, HG artistic director who helped found the nonprofit in 1991, says the name is in honor of his grandmothers Alma Roxie Hamilton and Clara Louise Gibson, two creative women—educators, musicians, artists—and the mission is “to provide opportunities for people of all ages to enrich and empower their lives through community performing arts.” Nowhere does it say to arrange marriages, but Thomas admits, “we joked when we came up with the hyphenated name that the hyphen represented our desire to build connections in the community.” Little did he know they’d build families.

Becoming Mrs. Banks

Julie Martin and Matthew Huels didn’t know each other before being cast in the 2023 summer musical Mary Poppins as George and Winifred Banks, the prim Victorian couple who need help raising their naughty children. Like their characters, they were reserved. But they noticed each other. Rehearsals had started in May, but it wasn’t till early June that they had a real conversation—something they both recall vividly. The cast had been asked for volunteers to mingle in costume at a children’s health fair and hand out flyers for upcoming HG shows. Matt, Julie, and Sarah Elswick (aka Mary Poppins) agreed. “All the kids wanted to get photos with Mary Poppins, not us,” Matt laughs, “so we hung back by the fountain and chatted.”

They discovered they were both pastor’s kids. After that, they found time to talk, but no one asked anyone out. “There was definitely a point when we were both crushing on each other and didn’t know the other was,” Julie says.

Thomas remembers glancing over while directing and seeing them talking. He thought, “Oh, wouldn’t that be nice.” But a plot twist came in the form of a prop engagement ring.

Matt had been with HG since joining the young men’s choir his senior year at Williamson High School. He was in summer musicals and several plays. From Lawrenceville, Matt has been assistant scoutmaster with Troop 2062 out of Tioga since 2018—he’d reached the rank of Eagle Scout in 2012. Working in Painted Post didn’t leave him a lot of time outside of rehearsals and Scouts to do anything but wonder about Mrs. Banks. He hadn’t expected to suddenly meet someone new and single and pretty.

Julie went to Liberty High School, then attended Cairn University in Philadelphia, where she started doing shows. She got involved with community theater in Bucks County and was in the ensemble for Mary Poppins. When she left to teach third grade in Indonesia at an international school, she helped direct school plays. She came back to the area during covid to become assistant site director for OneLife Institute that runs a Christian gap year program at Three Springs Ministries in Morris. Returning to the stage with the Community Theatre League in Williamsport, she’d just finished Beauty and the Beast when her mom pointed out the audition call for HG’s Mary Poppins.

Julie had a OneLife staff work retreat, so she missed a week of rehearsals. When she came back, Matt was gone, chaperoning at Boy Scouts camp. Julie started getting into the Mrs. Banks character. “I wore a fake engagement ring I had from another show. Apparently, it confused him,” she says.

“It drove me nuts!” Matt chimes in. It had only been two weeks since he’d seen her, but, “at the next rehearsal she showed up with the ring.” Matt, forlorn, texted his buddy, “There’s a hitch…”

“Well, I didn’t want to just announce, ‘Everybody—the ring is fake, in case anyone is wondering,’” Julie laughs. “He wasn’t picking up on my cues.”

“She was inconsistent,” Matt grumbles. In his defense, castmate Sarah says, “I could see Matt showing an interest but didn’t pick up on anything from Julie. Which is funny because she thought she was being obvious.” They’d managed only to confirm that neither had a special someone coming to see the show.

Actors rely on scripts (perhaps too much), and this one called for two kisses. Matt asked Thomas, “What do you want from this kiss?” He wasn’t sure what answer he hoped for, but Thomas decided they’d be on the cheek. Sarah describes watching Matt and Julie work on the waltz from the very last scene. It was close to midnight, the intern was cutting sound clips, and they asked her to play the music so they could practice the timing. “They looked like two middle schoolers at a dance,” says Sarah.

No matter how afraid of embarrassment they were, neither was going to let the show close without finding out if there was a chance. After the Sunday matinee and the last waltz, when the cast had struck the set and returned costumes and props, Julie and Matt lingered, talking. “I kept working up my nerve,” Matt says, and finally blurted, “So I have to ask: is the ring real or not?”

“I pulled it off my finger and almost threw it across the room,” Julie says. Then when he asked her if she wanted to go out, she said, “Yes, I’d love that…except I’m going to be gone for the next two weeks.”

Their first date was at Los Agaves, Wellsboro’s Mexican restaurant, after which they walked to the Green. It was August, and three dates later they were an exclusive couple. “A lot of our dates were mostly walking around Wellsboro,” Matt says, often stopping at the bench by the fountain where they’d had their first real conversation. Freed from the Victorian constraints of their characters, the couple didn’t waste time. Soon they were talking about getting engaged.

On their first date when she got back from a trip to South Africa, she knew something was up—things were awkward again. He was silent in the car. Usually, they didn’t decide details ahead of time, but this dinner date was particularly planned. He’d arranged for a photographer to be at the Green near “their” bench at a certain time, but the server brought food sooner than expected. He contacted the photographer to show up earlier, but didn’t get a response. Julie thought it was unlike him to be checking his phone during dinner. Walking to the Green, he realized he didn’t want her leftovers in the pictures. “Give me those real quick,” he said, and ran over to the car.

At their bench, he got down on one knee, and Julie realized Matt was Mary Poppin’ the question. Except what came out of his mouth was, “I’m so nervous.” To which she answered, “You don’t need to be.” The photographer made it in time to catch the proposal.

On June 29, they gathered in the outdoor pavilion at Mountaintop Grace Community in Liberty. It had been pouring rain, and though Julie’s train got soaked, they agree the day was practically perfect. Matt’s mother and Julie’s father shared in leading the service. Inside the reception tent was a kite from the show and the dessert table had a painted decorative mirror calling for “A Spoonful of Sugar.” Atop the wedding cake stood Mr. and Mrs. Banks, felted figures Julie’s sister Amber made. They incorporated the waltz from the closing scene into their wedding dance. Neither of them sang, though the lyrics of Julie’s solo “Being Mrs. Banks” must have been going through her head: Being Mrs. Banks. Being kissed by you, a man of dreams who made me feel that wishes could come true.

As Long as He Needs Me

Not all HG matches have begun with a loving couple. The relationship between Titus and Natalie Himmelberger started with her killing him on stage. They met in the radio play Dracula: A Symphony of Terrors over Halloween 2015. In a radio play, actors stand at microphones and use only their voices to act, often playing multiple characters just like the old-time radio shows. Titus was cast as young Dracula, and Natalie (Hallead then) played the young woman who drives a stake through his heart.

In the first read-through, Gabe, who was directing, says Titus, “was at his most seductive.” Natalie made sure to sit near him. “Those blue eyes got me,” she recalls, “but his voice was so creepy.”

Titus didn’t plan on auditioning. He’d been in a few HG shows in 2013-14, but work didn’t leave time for evening rehearsals. He happened to be in town on a day when auditions were held and went on a whim.

Natalie grew up moving around in Kenya and Thailand with her brothers because her father, Glen Hallead, was doing missionary work. When he became pastor at First Presbyterian Church, she transferred to Mansfield University and moved to Wellsboro. She was in HG shows from 2009-12 before moving to Bangkok and then to St. Petersburg to teach at an international school. She’d just moved back to Wellsboro in late summer. After rehearsals started, she saw Titus at Wellsboro Bible Church. “I really wanted to go say ‘Hi,’ but I couldn’t remember his name,” she says. “I couldn’t say, ‘Hey, Dracula!’”

“She was very standoffish to me,” Titus recalls.

“I was convinced he wasn’t single,” Natalie says. “A [single] guy like this in Tioga County? No way.”

They didn’t have conversations during rehearsals, but each one watched the other. So closely, in fact, that Titus saw a baby seat in her car and figured she was a single mom (she was babysitting). It wasn’t till February 2016, when the Dracula cast reunited to film it, that the two started messaging a little. “Are you auditioning for Once Upon a Wolf?” “I will if you will.”

During those rehearsals, Titus got up the nerve to ask if she wanted a ride home. He’d noticed she always walked. He didn’t want to seem stalk-y—after all, he was playing the Big Bad Wolf to her Little Red Riding Hood. “She said no,” he says and shakes his head.

Natalie laughs and says, “I choked” when he asked her. Her inner monologue went: He finally asked! I can’t be too forward. Oh, I haven’t said anything. Oh, he’s looking at me…“Nah, I’m good.”

At least he could see her at church, which he’d been attending more regularly. One Sunday in March he was sitting in the pews with a friend when she came in and sat by him. His buddy whispered to Titus, “You’re done.”

Titus replied, “I know.”

As stage manager, Natalie made sure when Once Upon a Wolf was over and the set pieces were loaded in Titus’s truck to return to storage that she rode with him. Titus approved of that plan. He’d heard her say she liked ABBA and had a CD cued. They sang all the way there and back. After that, they chatted about pop culture, including Doctor Who, The Walking Dead, and Marvel v. DC Comics. Their first date was April 1, 2016, at Wellsboro’s Arcadia Theatre to see Batman v. Superman.

“I swear, everyone in HG was wanting this to work,” says Titus. “We kept being cast with each other.” Gabe laughs but disagrees. He’d noticed the chemistry, but says, “I don’t stir the pot. Besides, I’m selfish when casting. I know what I need.”

They both auditioned for the summer musical, Oliver! and went to dinner after. They were cast as the ill-fated couple, Bill Sikes and Nancy. One of the most touching songs is Nancy’s solo, “As Long as He Needs Me.” The way I feel inside, the love I have to hide. The Hell! I’ve got my pride as long as he needs me. This was the first show Natalie and Titus were in when they were officially dating, and he remembers watching from the wings as she sang the ballad reprise. “I had to stop myself and walk away because I’d get choked up. I had to be mean, because in the next scene I confront her, fight, and kill her.” That evened the score.

During the last week of rehearsals, Natalie tripped on her long skirt and slammed her head against a wall. “Titus was so caring,” she recalls. He took her home and stayed a while to be sure she was okay. “It was a totally different side of him than I’d seen.”

They dated for two years. Titus wanted to enjoy the dating process and get his circumstances in order. Natalie was living with her brother, Jacob, at the time. In June of 2017, before buying a house, Titus showed it to Natalie and asked if she could live there. She said, “I can live anywhere. I’m a mish kid [missionary’s kid].”

Titus clarified, “But could you live here with me?”

Natalie thought, “Well, that was promising.”

When they saw her parents in North Carolina over Thanksgiving, Titus told her father, “I’m planning to ask Natalie to marry me.” Not till April, though, since that’s when they started dating. Natalie, who didn’t know this, was getting antsy. Her brother had just gotten engaged, and she had to find a new place to live. She asked Titus if she should start looking at apartments. He said, “I guess so.”

April 1, 2018, was Easter, April Fool’s Day, and their anniversary. They were going to see Ready Player One at the Arcadia, and Titus was unusually agitated. He’d forgotten the ring, so told her he had to go back for his phone. She wondered why he couldn’t leave his phone at home. Once in the Arcadia lobby, he dallied, talking to people, wanting her to go in first. He had a friend ready to film and a little surprise on the screen. The manager had let him put up a slide—it was a picture of them kissing in front of a KISS band banner.

Titus recalls, “We go in and she says, ‘They used to have interesting stuff. Now it’s just a black screen.’ Right then the picture comes up and I say, ‘Well, there’s that.’”

“I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, someone hacked his Facebook!’ Then I looked back, and he was kneeling, and I started Emma Thompsoning it,” Natalie says, referring to a famous proposal scene from Sense and Sensibility. The lone guy two rows back slinked down in his seat.

They got married July 28, 2018, in North Carolina with her father presiding and her grandfather singing. They snuck the wedding in between performance weekends. Natalie, when waiting to walk down the aisle, felt a wave a panic: “I don’t know my lines!” A great metaphor for marriage. And parenthood. Titus and Natalie welcomed baby Amber in November 2023.

Not Our Job

Thomas and Gabe refuse to play matchmaker (unless directing Fiddler on the Roof, of course), but they are not surprised romances bloom. “Being on stage requires a vulnerability,” Thomas says. “If you’re on stage with someone, I think it makes a safe place for deeper connections.”

Gabe agrees. “When you’re creating a role and acting together, you’re trusting each other to make each other not look bad, being gracious with each other’s mistakes, and supporting each other. And if it leads to a romantic relationship, Huzzah!”

Even if you don’t find your special someone via HG, Thomas and Gabe promise you’ll meet great people and make new friends if you audition or volunteer backstage. Instead of matchmaker.com, why not go to hamiltongibson.org?