A Ridiculously Lucky Vagabond
/(Originally published February 20, 2021)
Scott Treadway on stage at Flat Rock Playhouse
Actors often tell stories of the “big break” that altered the course of their lives and careers. Stories typically involve one last casting call before giving up on their dream, or a chance meeting while struggling to make ends meet as a waiter at a local bistro. For Flat Rock Playhouse Vagabonds legend, Scott Treadway, his big moment transpired in a place familiar to anyone that’s ever been to a show at the Playhouse - during the organized chaos of Playhouse parking.
In the summer of 1983, Scott had just graduated from high school in Tennessee. He and his girlfriend traveled to Henderson County to visit Scott’s Aunt Louise and, as was their custom during his visits, they drove to Flat Rock to take in a matinee performance at the Playhouse. The cheerful young summer apprentice who assisted them with finding a parking spot turned out to be a friend of Scott’s from high school. Scott and Diane struck up a conversation and she told Scott about the Playhouse’s apprenticeship program for young aspiring actors.
After the performance, Diane arranged a tour of the Playhouse campus with Robin Farquhar, son of the original Vagabond and founding force behind the Playhouse, Robroy Farquhar. Scott was enchanted with what he saw, and the rest is, as they say, history. “If I hadn’t run into Diane parking cars, none of this would have ever happened,” laughs Scott. “I don’t know where I would have ended up.”
Fortunately for Flat Rock and the Playhouse, Scott Treadway ended up as a Playhouse Apprentice the following summer of 1984 and he has been a fixture at the Playhouse ever since. One of the area’s most prolific actors and favorite faces on the Leiman Mainstage, Scott estimates that over the course of three-plus decades he has been in over 140 local theater productions. During that time he has entertained untold thousands of Playhouse patrons with his trademark and wildly expressive face, his ability to transform his persona and voice to meet the demands of an incredible variety of characters, and a comedic sense that never fails to deliver the punch line with pitch-perfect timing.
Scott got his unofficial start as a performer at a very young age in the living room of his home in Johnson City, TN. His older sister, Cindy, was severely disabled and spent her days on a mattress in the family living room. Scott would duck behind an ottoman and use puppets and voices to entertain his sister. Her delighted reaction was Scott’s first inkling that he might be destined to entertain. “That was my first experience of making somebody laugh,” he recalls.
During those years, Scott also looked forward to every Saturday night and watching The Carol Burnett Show with his family. He voraciously absorbed the acting and comedy techniques he observed and credits Carol and company with helping him establish a comedic style and an ear for the language and timing of comedy.
By the time Scott reached High School, he was ready to advance to the next level of performance and he auditioned for, and secured, a spot in his first real play - The Man Who Came to Dinner. Looking back he now realizes that was the moment that began “this mess I got myself into.” “This mess” being a lifetime in theater.
After his first year of college at the University of Tennessee, Scott spent the first of many summers as a Playhouse Apprentice. It was, to put it mildly, a life-altering experience. Scott found himself swept up in the excitement, energy, and joy of being totally immersed in Summer Stock theater. To this day, Scott describes that first season at the Playhouse as the best summer of his life and knew even then that he had discovered his new home. “It’s hard to explain,” he says. “It was almost as if I had discovered my native people and we were all speaking a common language of theater.” Scott had discovered his place to find joy.
Scott recalls the strong community bonds created by long hours of hard work, shared living arrangements in the Playhouse dormitories, meals taken together in the old Playhouse cafeteria, and joyous volleyball matches on a make-shift court in the front yard of the Lowndes House. The Playhouse season was also much different then, with 10 plays put on in just 11 weeks -with mostly the same actors - during the summer. An ambitious undertaking Scott lovingly refers to as “insane.”
Scott and Barbara bradshaw in “Look Homeward Angel.” 1985. Photo from “Fifty Years with the Vagabonds” by Louise Howe Bailey.
Scott’s first big acting break at the Playhouse came very early in his career - in fact even before you could call it a career. In the summer of 1985, just Scott’s second summer at the Playhouse, he was tapped to play the role of Eugene in Look Homeward Angel. At the time, Look Homeward Angel was a Playhouse standard and had been performed for 16 years running. He got the part after first being asked to serve as a stand-in to read lines for several actresses auditioning for the part of Laura. Director Ralph Redpath was so impressed during the readings that he asked Scott to take on the role. Not surprisingly, Scott remembers that play as one of the greatest experiences of his life and is grateful for the opportunity he was given to work alongside Vagabond legends W.C. “Mutt” Burton and Helen “Casey” Bragdon.
Scott established himself as a comedic stalwart at Flat Rock Playhouse in 1991 with his starring role in a production of Greater Tuna. Thereafter Scott recalls, “Robin would throw me a little bone here, a little bone there and the more he saw of my comedy stuff, the roles just started to get bigger and bigger.’ Having demonstrated his obvious skill and commitment to the Playhouse, he was offered the role of Development Director in 1992 and made the move to live in Henderson County year-round.
When asked if he ever dreamed of a career on Broadway or in Hollywood, Scott shakes his head no. “I look at Broadway actors who do a show for two years and I just think, ‘God bless you.’ I have so much respect and an appreciation for that, but I couldn’t do it.” Scott feels that regional theater, with several different productions in a season, is a better fit for his temperament. It has also afforded Playhouse patrons the opportunity to see Scott Treadway ply his craft through an incredible array of characters and dramatic and comedic productions.
Scott especially loves the challenge of comedic roles. His extensive acting experience, limber physical presence, and incredibly expressive face make him perfect for any comedy situation that requires precise timing and the occasional slapstick performance. Indeed, many consider his expressive face to be his signature feature as an actor. “That’s just me and my eyebrows,” he says with a laugh. Although he makes it look easy - like your funny uncle just goofing around - Scott knows that successful comedy is so much more than funny voices and screwball faces. “When I teach, I emphasize the timing and the language of comedy. It's really specific. There's a rhythm and science to it.”
Every actor of any experience has had memorable moments on stage - both rewarding and terrifying. Scott recalls a two-man production with another Vagabond veteran, Preston Dyar, when he completely blanked on his lines half-way through the play. “I just looked him the eye and said, ‘Help. Help. Help.’”
On another occasion, Scott and his fellow actors were in the final moments of a recent play called The Love List. The play ends with a very loud and dramatic knock at one of the set doors followed by lights out and, moments later, actors taking bows before another delighted Playhouse audience. One night, however, the climatic knock never came and the lights never went out - leaving Scott and his compatriots to improvise several never-before-heard lines to the play. “It went on and on for probably only 45 seconds but it felt like 18 hours.” As with so many theater stories, what was terrifying in the moment now elicits gales of laughter in the subsequent re-telling.
Of course, the pandemic has been a tremendous challenge for all the actors, crew, and staff that make Flat Rock’s iconic theater so successful year after year. Scott has been surprised to realize he’s missed the long rehearsal hours even more than being on stage performing. He’s missed his theater friends and the camaraderie and hard work that go into a successful production. The time away from the stage has also been a reminder that his life has been charmed in many ways. “It's taught me to recognize how ridiculously lucky I am to get to do as many shows as I get to do with these amazing people at the Playhouse.“
The pandemic has also motivated Scott to pursue his outside business interests, including a fledgling enterprise of making a line of handmade soaps called Treadsoap with the assistance of his 16-year-old daughter, Ava. He is thankful for how much he’s learned about business in the past year and considers the unexpected change of focus to be “a wonderful experience” that will serve him well in the future.
What is next for Scott Treadway? Always an optimist, he is very upbeat about the future and believes that after so many months of forced separation and isolation, people will be anxious to get back to live theater performances. “I think the first real show back at the playhouse will be enormous.”
He’s also learned many lessons during the theater hiatus. “This thing has taught us that we have taken places like the Playhouse for granted. We've always been told that it's experiences, not material things, that ultimately make us happy.” And he is very ready for the return of those experiences. “I cannot wait. I miss the patrons. I miss talking to them after shows. It’s been a good reminder of how really lucky we are to do this work.”
And Flat Rock is lucky to have an extraordinary Vagabond like Scott Treadway standing in the wings waiting for his next cue to delight and entertain us all.
