Editorial Note by Robert Stone: The campaign to save the theatre was successful enough to continue its life a few more years but sadly many different factors combined to bring this miracle of a major theatre in a very small town to only being a memory.

Comments by Rich Burk who in 1977 at Horse Cave Theatre was the Master Electrician, Scene Shop Foreman, and also Equity Understudy for the roles played by Nick Daley. He is currently Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance at Casper College in Casper, Wyoming. In 2011 he directed off Broadway for Emerald Green Productions, "THE MAGDALENE," which played the Theatre at St. Clements on West 46th Street.

...of course memories do haunt us time and again, otherwise, much of literature would go a-wanting. Horse Cave Theatre was founded on an idea, an artistic idea, but more importantly, an idea of hope. Hope that we can share a few hours together in the theatre now and again, becoming a community... a community called the 'audience.' Perhaps this community is the greatest miracle in the theatre. It often consists of a brash cross-section of society, populated by the bank president, the politician, the school-child, and yes, as Tom Chaney said prior to the opening of HCT in 1977, the farmer who "...only needs to kick the cow-sh*t off his boots before he comes into the theatre."

I hope that community is being reconstituted somewhere, but I am afraid I don't see it. Instead I see the eruption of megaplex cinemas with 18 screens, each viewed by a couple of dozen seats... I see children on benches texting children on adjoining benches... and I see bumper stickers like the popular one in Wyoming that states "Welcome to Wyoming, consider everyone armed."

Yes, it was a miracle. And it is missed. And the memories, far from haunting, are in fact reassuring in a nostalgic sort of way. I hope that the joy that Tom Chaney and Joe Graber shared in coming up with the audacious idea that led to HCT is still alive in all who shared the vision of Warren Hammack and all who followed in the maintaining of the dream... and I hope that a child who saw a show at some time has the temerity to think that she can do likewise -- create a place where a community can form for just a few hours, and share ideas, and share emotions, and share the space with one another.