Emily Sutton-Smith and John Lepard met while doing a show together 20 years ago at the Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea.
Since then, they’ve done a lot together. They’ve co-founded a theater in Williamston, gotten married, taught at MSU and had a child. What they haven’t done together since 2004 is act in a show together.
Until now.
From Feb. 1-March 10 they will once again walk the boards in the same show, reuniting under the direction of fellow Williamston co-founder Tony Caselli, to perform in “Maytag Virgin,” a comedy about love and grief and moving on by Audrey Cefaly at Williamston Theatre.
It was 2004 when Caselli was directing Steve Martin’s “The Underpants” at the Purple Rose and both Sutton-Smith and Lepard had been cast. They’d met briefly at callbacks the previous year, but March 1 was when they started rehearsing together and formed the foundation of a relationship that would later help launch Williamston Theatre and lead to their proposal and wedding on the stage of that company.