Nichole Henry, Born for the Stage

Nichole Henry has a love for the performing arts.

“I’ve been doing theater for a very long time,” she said. “I used to memorize movies and act them out as they played in my room.”

Henry, 30, went from acting out movies in her bedroom as a child to becoming one of the youngest presidents of the Greenwood Little Theatre’s Board of Directors.

Henry began performing in plays when she was in elementary school.

“But it was in seventh or eighth grade that really dove into performing,” she said.

Henry gives credit to Greenwood Little Theatre—the second longest-running community theatre in the state, now in its 64th season—for nurturing her love of performing while growing up.

When the 2008 Pillow Academy graduate found her passion for theater, she became a member of Pillow’s Thespian Society while in junior high.

She also served as both secretary and vice president of the Thespian Society during her time at Pillow.

Upon graduation, Henry attended Mississippi Delta Community College, where she continued performing as an ambassador in the show choir for the school.

Henry then decided to step out of her comfort zone and make the move to Little Rock, Arkansas. There, she performed numerous shows with several theater groups, including The Weekend Theater, The Studio Theatre, PUBLIC Theatre and the Community Theatre of Little Rock.

“It was fun performing with different groups and seeing how other places did things,” she said.

After living and performing in Little Rock for nearly five years, Henry decided to move back home to Greenwood, where she quickly reunited with her first love—Greenwood Little Theatre.

“I moved back home and had really missed GLT,” she said. “I dove right into performing with them when I got back.”

After being back in her hometown and performing with Greenwood Little Theatre for nearly two years, Henry was approached with what she saw as the opportunity of a lifetime when she was nominated to become vice president of the board of the theater.

“At first, I was so nervous,” she said. “It was scary, because it’s this place that I love so much. I am in charge of it now; how weird is that?”

Henry served as vice president during the 2018-2019 season, and she became president of the board soon after turning 30 in the summer of 2019.

“When I was younger, I thought it would be neat to be president of the board one day, but I did not ever think it would happen so soon,” she said.

As president of the board, Henry handles the day-to-day duties of the theatre, such as delegating jobs to various committees, speaking with directors and cast members to make sure tasks are running smoothly, and leading board meetings.

“It has been different being on the other side of things, but I have learned a lot,” she said.

Henry gives credit to past presidents of the board for encouraging her to step into the role.

“Growing up in the theater and seeing the past presidents, you see that you have great people to look up to,” she said.

Henry is proud of the theater’s growth in memberships this season.

“We really hit the ground running this year on memberships,” she said. “We have a very large increase this season.”

Greenwood Little Theatre members can choose between different membership tiers to meet their needs. Each tier provides membership holders with a certain amount of tickets to every show of the theater’s season. Henry said memberships are the theater’s No.1 source of income, excluding donations.

The increase in memberships has allowed Henry and the GLT board to allocate funds to various needs of the theater, such as fixing roof damage.

“One of the storms that came through this past year hit and hurt our roof,” Henry said. “We got that taken care of, and it is fine, but there are older parts that need work. It’s an old building, and it constantly needs upkeep.”

On top of the increase in memberships for the 2019-2020 season, Henry said she is thankful for the donations that theater has received this season as well.

“We have people and businesses that will give a donation on top of their membership dee, and we are very grateful for that,” she said.

Henry term as president will end in June, but she will remain on the board as a past president to offer assistance to the upcoming president if needed.

Aside from her duties as board president of Greenwood Little Theatre, Henry is digital marketing director at The Greenwood Commonwealth.

She enjoys spending time with her fiance, Taylor Buchanan; their two dogs, Caldonia and Winchester; and participating in trivia nights with friends.