Craig Sumerix has been a part of the Buchanan community his entire life, always offering a helping hand wherever he saw the need. For years, Sumerix has been an adult leader with the local Boy Scout Troop, a volunteer at the northern Indiana food bank and up until about a month ago he was on the Buchanan Library Board but had to step down due to scheduling conflicts with his job as an adjunct college professor. Recently, Craig has turned his passion for volunteering into a passion for acting while helping out the Tin Shop Theater in Buchanan, Michigan.

 

Q: What all do you do at the Tin Shop Theater?

A: I do a little bit of everything down there. I shovel the walk, help carry stuff up and down, set up and take down sets and I was just in the play that Martha Branson-Banks) directed.

Whenever they need something done or somebody needs let in the building, they call me since I have a key and live only a block away. I try to be available as much as possible.

 

Q: How long have you been Volunteering at the Tin Shop Theatre?

A: Well, with the Tin Shop, I actually just got involved in the last couple of months. I was in a play about a year and a half ago with Martha and that’s when we kind of met. As far as shoveling the walk and helping out with stuff like that, I really just got involved this past winter around the time of the construction and renovations.

 

Q: What about community theater, or the Tin Shop Theatre specifically, is important to you?

A: Well, to be honest, it was because somebody approached me. The director has come to me and said, ‘Hey, I have this position I need filled, can you do it?” I had done some plays in high school and even a couple the first few years after high school but that was the last time I had done anything like this, basically because of my work schedule.

As an adjunct professor I can’t really tell you what I’ll be teaching come summer. There are auditions in July for a play that will run in September. but I can’t really audition because I have no idea what my fall schedule is going to be. So I am always kind of on-call. The last three plays have been a situation where the director has come to me and said, ‘Hey, I have this position I need filled, can you do it?’ and I try to help as often as I can.

 

Q: What is your favorite part about volunteering at the Tin Shop Theater?

A: As far as volunteering, it is just knowing I am getting something done so that someone else doesn’t have to do it. Like, for me to stop over and do the shoveling outside is really no big deal and it saves someone from having to drive all the way here and do it and having all that hassle.

The acting and getting the reactions from the crowd is always fun, too, seeing how they react to the jokes and what works and doesn’t work. Especially, this last character I played, he was a real pompous (jerk) is what he was, and sometimes it is fun getting to play those roles and be those characters that you aren’t in real life.