Evelyne M. Thomas

Loved The Theater

Evelyne M. Thomas of Newtown died on June 8 in Danbury Hospital.

She was born in London on August 23, 1922. Evelyne met her future husband, Dr Douglas Thomas, in Sussex as a result of businesses moving out of London during World War II and they were married April 5, 1942.

The Thomases came to the United States in March 1958 and the family settled in Newtown in September 1958, residing at Fairfield Hills Hospital, where Dr Thomas was on the staff. Mrs Thomas worked as office manager for Dr Donald T. Evans for many years until she retired in 1998.

Evelyne’s greatest avocation was Town Players of Newtown and The Little Theatre, which she had been involved in for “slightly more than 40 years,” she said in December 2005, after the community theater company had completed its 70th anniversary season.

“They wrote about [my family] in The Bee after we emigrated,” Mrs Thomas said. “It was unusual for a full family to just emigrate. They wanted us for a play, Separate Tables, but we couldn’t do it at the time.”

One of the first tasks Mrs Thomas did handle for the community theater — which at the time was presenting productions at Edmond Town Hall — was sound effects.

“I was crawling around backstage with a reel-to-reel tape recorder,” she said with a great laugh. “It was hilarious, and great fun.”

For many years she acted in many comedies and as years progressed she began to direct and produce plays as well. The first play she directed for Town Players was The White Sheep of The Family, in 1965. Most of the plays Mrs Thomas directed were comedies. “I usually do things that will make the audience laugh,” she said.

She eventually became a member of the board of directors and served as vice president.

Recently it had become tradition for Mrs Thomas to direct the Players’ season-opening play. Evelyne directed Noises Off as the opening play for the current season, in fact.

Town Players is a nonprofit organization, and Mrs Thomas was always aware of that.

“It costs a lot to put on a production. Tickets are $15 per show these days, but we still don’t make a lot of money,” said Mrs Thomas, who still loved being involved in the small theater nearly a half-century after moving into Newtown. “We do what we do because we want to do this, and for no other reason.”

In April 2003, Mrs Thomas represented The Town Players when she was the first guest of a cable program, Center Stage, that celebrated the wealth of live theater in the area.

Evelyne Thomas is survived by her sons, Christopher of New Fairfield and Lyndon and his wife Mary of Newtown; and her grandsons, Dylan of Newtown and David of Chapel Hill, N.C.

She was predeceased by her husband.

A memorial service will be held at 2 pm on Saturday, June 17, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 36 Main Street in Newtown.

Contributions in memory of Mrs Thomas may be made to Newtown Town Players, PO Box 211, Newtown CT 06470.

Arrangements were handled by Honan Funeral Home of Newtown.

The Newtown Bee        June 16, 2006