WSU’s Lee Hatley, as H.C. Curry, and Kelly Quinnett, as Curry’s daughter, Lizzie, were two of the “family” members of last season’s Idaho Repertory Theatre production of “The Rainmaker.”

By Nella Letizia

Lee Hatley looked at Kelly Quinnett, saw his own daughter and started to cry. This happened often on the stage of “The Rainmaker,” the blockbuster Idaho Repertory Theatre production of last summer. Hatley played the part of H.C. Curry, Quinnett as Curry’s daughter, Lizzie. Together with Rian Jariel and Adam Pitman as Curry’s sons, Noah and Jim, they transcended the Hartung Theatre confines and the bonds of blood.

“All four of us, from day to day, became a family—in real life,” Hatley says. “That was the most outstanding thing. It was the pinnacle.”

“The Rainmaker,” N. Richard Nash’s play set during the Depression in the Midwest, centers around the drought drying up Curry’s farm—and the heart of Lizzie, a plain woman seemingly destined to be a spinster taking care of her father and brothers. That all changes with the flamboyant arrival of Bill Starbuck, a handsome con artist who promises to bring rain for $100. Starbuck’s charismatic ways stir up the Curry household, exacerbating the division between practical Noah and dreamer Jim. But Lizzie undergoes the largest transformation, overcoming her extreme distrust of Starbuck to finally see her own beauty and desirability through his eyes.

The Currys’ metamorphosis and belief in magic touched many who saw the IRT performance. In its 40-year history, it was the first time a nonmusical was brought back for the theatre’s revival.

For Hatley, by day a 30-year maintenance and construction manager for WSU’s Housing Services, the production brought unexpected rewards. Seven years into his acting hobby, he practically couldn’t walk down the street before someone recognized him from “The Rainmaker,” including the likes of Christina Crawford, daughter of actress Joan Crawford, and Ellen Travolta, sister of actor John Travolta.

Hatley’s first theatre role was in Pullman Community Theatre’s production of “Lunch Hour” in 1993. He first got into theatre because his daughter, Heather, took acting lessons in Spokane the same year. Her teacher was Dennis Redford, Robert Redford’s cousin.

“We became good friends because I dropped Heather off at classes and stuck around to watch what they were doing,” Hatley said. “He talked me into taking one of his classes.

“I was bashful. I would hyperventilate when I’d get in front of people (at work) to talk to them. So he told me it would be really good for my job. And I believed him. Mistake No. 1. I’ve never been the same.”

Hatley and Heather joined a talent studio, Take Five, in 1993; their agent tried to pair father and daughter for assignments. Their first one was for a cancer group organizing a barbecue fund-raiser. Hatley played “Gunsmoke” lead Matt Dillon, and Heather played Kitty, wearing a rented outfit complete with a feather on her head.

“Me, I furnished my own,” said Hatley, who trains horses at his Clarkia, Idaho, ranch. “I had the cowboy hat, guns and the horse.”

Other assignments followed. An ad for a company called Hot Shots, producers of defibrillators, called for Heather to be a nurse and Hatley the heart attack victim, filmed over eight hours in an actual operating room of St. Luke’s hospital in Spokane. Then Heather left for Seattle to try for bigger and better roles. Her move could have signaled the end of his acting, but by that time, Hatley was hooked.

“To start with, it was to be with Heather and do things with her,” he said. “Once I got started in it, I liked it. I got into plays because there aren’t many films in this part of the country. Then doing theater became practice for films.”

Hatley has performed in 11 plays and 11 films, as well as numerous commercials and voiceovers. He’s done industrial films for WSU’s Human Resource Services and the College of Agriculture and Home Economics to promote its ACE 1994 meeting, “Footloose in the Palouse.”

Film work has brought Hatley face to face with people you mostly just hear about. Hatley played a bartender in the film “Detour” with Michael Madsen, Jeff Fahey and Ellen Travolta. In “Dante’s Peak,” with Hatley as a townsman, he was on the set with Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton. (“Pierce Brosnan is a neat guy. He talks to everyone.”) And as a basketball game spectator in “The Basket,” he worked with Peter Coyote, Karen Allen—and Quinnett.

“These are the people I hang out with,” he joked. “In my wildest dreams.”

But Hatley enjoys doing plays because they give him a chance to perform live. From his early community theater roles, where he faced an audience of 30-70 people, he went on to University of Idaho plays attended by 350-400 theatergoers, as was the case with “The Rainmaker.” He’s now acting in a one-act UI comedy called “Weed,” a study of the consequences of natural resource conflicts on rural communities. The play has toured five cities and is set to go to 32 in all, including St. Louis April 25. Hatley plays Harv Griffin, a businessman, county commissioner and river guide.

“The play doesn’t offer solutions, only choices and opportunities,” he said. “It’s meant to be lighthearted about a bunch of very serious things. If we don’t quit arguing (over natural resource issues) and work these things out, there will be no solution.”

In addition, Hatley will return to IRT this summer to perform as Gonzalo in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” his first time taking on the Bard. In the future, he would like to do more character roles. Who knows, when he retires from WSU, he may very well have another career waiting for him.

“I get an adrenaline rush when I do this,” he said. “It is so much fun. I just go crazy over it.”