About the playwright

Rick Hite went to Dartmouth College for undergraduate studies, John’s Hopkins for his master’s, then Michigan State for his doctoral work. He met his wife, Barbara Allan, who is Rosalind’s mother’s older sister, thanks to Fletcher and Margaret Collins and the Oak Grove Theater. Bobbie and Rick were early Oak Grovers. Bobbie’s sister, Bette (Elizabeth Collins) followed her sister to Mary Baldwin College and also joined the theater tribe. She met Rosalind’s dad, Kit Collins while doing summer theater at Oak Grove and Pennyroyal Farm. Even after moving to Norfolk, Bobbie and Rick would spend summers acting at Oak Grove and working on Bobbie’s plays with Theater Wagon.

Rick Hite began the theater department at Virginia Wesleyan college in the late 60’s where he dedicated himself to his passion of theater until his retirement 1999 as professor emeritus. As well as serving as a senior faculty member in theater and communications, Rick was constantly involved in productions and acting outside of the college in theaters, film, radio and advertisements, too many to mention. A fluent Spanish speaker, he translated many poems and modern plays by Spanish authors. His wife, Bobbie, wrote many plays, some winning awards, and two novels, for which Rick did the illustrations.

Rick wrote Whatchamacallits in his seventies as an homage to his mother. The first voices for Grace and Faith were from Bobbie and Bette at a Theater Wagon play workshop.  He passed away in 2024.