Anne is also a co-founder of and producer for Chickspeare, Charlotte’s all-female Shakespeare company, which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary. In addition, she is a member of the recently formed cooperative of diverse artists working with Mecklenburg County to transform an underutilized county building into the Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) Center.
Is Charlotte your hometown?
No, I grew up in Decatur, GA. I attended Davidson College in the mid-1980s where I met my boyfriend Tim Waples—who
is a Charlotte native. We married in 1989 and moved back to the Charlotte area in 1996. He’s been teaching high school English at Charlotte Country Day School since the late 1990s. When I moved back, I began work immediately as a development officer, fundraiser and contract grant writer. I’ve been doing that for various non-profit organizations—including Charlotte Ballet, Gantt Center, McColl Center, Big Brothers Big Sisters, VAPA Center, and Community Culinary School of Charlotte—for more than 25 years.
My side hustle is producing, directing, and acting in theater with Charlotte’s Off-Broadway. As COB, I currently maintain a 55-seat black box theater space and rehearsal space for my own productions and other independent home-grown theater projects at the VAPA Center.
Tell me your favorite spot or thing to do in Charlotte?
One of my favorite spots in Charlotte is right around the corner from where I live: Independence Park. It recently got a refresh, with new landscaping, walking paths, and a great mural by Georgie Nakima. I also love the Arhelger Memorial with its waterfall and reflecting pool. It’s a great park!
What attracted you to theatre?
I’ve always liked to be the center of attention and to be performing in front of an audience. I think some people are made for that kind of experience and others are not, but for me, the stage is a very relaxing and inspiring place to be. I also am motivated by authentic, provocative art with something to say, and I think the best way to make an artistic statement is on the stage in a show.
What’s an achievement or point of pride that most people don't know about you?
After college, I spent a year in Tokyo, Japan pursing a yearlong, self-designed independent study of contemporary and traditional Japanese theater on a competitively awarded research fellowship from the Thomas J. Watson Foundation. I studied Kabuki and Noh dance, Takarazuka all-female theater, and took classes at Waseda University. That experience studying gender-bending performers—women who are male-presenting on stage and men who present as female on stage—has inspired a lot of my artistry.
What is a recent book, film or play you that moved you, and you’d recommend to others? And why?
I recommend my sister Susan Lambert Hatem’s play
CONFIDENCE (and the Speech), which she and I produced in 2018 here in Charlotte and Off-Broadway at Theatre Row in NYC in 2019. The play is being published this spring by Dramatist Play Services. It’s a terrific script that uses President Jimmy Carter’s 1979 energy policy speech and cross-gender casting to explore the confidence of a president, a nation in chaos, and women in politics.
