Ruth Hale isn't going to let a little thing like age or pain in her legs stop her from doing what she loves.
At 88, the great-grandmother of local theater just goes onstage and forgets to worry about it - four nights a week.Hale stars in "Thank You, Papa," at Hale Center Theatre, Orem, playing her own mother in a play she wrote about her family. (The play's run finishes with Saturday evening's performance.)
Sometimes when the pain gets severe, she'll take medication during the intermission. But Hale is a trouper.
"I don't care if I die on stage," Hale said.
Her legs have hurt since she ran off the road in a vehicle that wasn't meant to travel at high speed through sagebrush and sand. Before her accident, she played softball with her grandkids at age 70 and rode a motorcycle for fun.
She seldom slowed down. "Now I rest quite a bit more," she said, laughing.
"Everyone comes to Earth with talents, and when you use your talent, you're happy," Hale said during an interview at the family's Orem theater. "I have to keep writing every day or the day isn't complete.
"When I'm standing in the sound booth and the audience laughs at something I've written, that makes me happy. It's even better when they cry.
"Acting is easier than writing," she said, "But, oh, I love them both."
Hale has been involved in some kind of drama or theater since she was old enough to climb stacks of straw and sing and dance for her childhood chums. She enjoys it all, writing, directing, hunting props, even the ad-libbing that comes with the inevitable onstage crisis.
"I think I'll write a book about what can go wrong onstage," she said.
Because Hale Center Theatre actors perform in the round, with the audiences seated close to the action, some of those crises have involved spectators stealing edible props from the tables or answering stage telephones.
She and her husband, Nathan, created Hale Center Comedy in Glendale, Calif., 50 years ago.
Originally, their theater in Glendale was a haven for would-be stars who weren't finding work yet in nearby Hollywood.
When she and Nathan were ready to retire, they started the three theaters in Utah, with family members taking charge of the day-to-day operation. Their trademarks of warmth, humor and a lively pace in family-oriented productions are part of each one.
They stayed actively involved. Nathan, suffering from bone cancer, played the role of Scrooge in "A Christmas Carol" almost up to his final moment.
He always played the male lead in "Thank You, Papa." He always insisted on a high standard from Hale Center castmembers. "You never broke character in front of him," Ruth Hale said. "Oh my, no."
Since his death, it's been a lot harder to find older men to play the role opposite Ruth Hale in the show. "There just aren't that many 88-year-old men interested in acting," Hale said. "We're having to cast considerably younger men and age them."
Meanwhile, Hale continues to garner awards and attention for her role in the theater. She was recently named by the Glendale YWCA as a Woman of Heart & Excellence, and she received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Mormon Arts Festival in St. George this past season.
She's pleased but slightly abashed with the fuss.
The way she figures it, she's just doing what she loves and making friends along the way.