The Lovedays of Millersburg and their love affair with Loudonville's Ohio Theatre

LOUDONVILLE − The first time Scott and Amy Loveday saw a musical at The Ohio Theatre they fell in love.

Not with each other — that was already the case — but with the building itself.

“What a beautiful place,” Amy Loveday said. “And the way the building is structured, it has fantastic acoustics."

That was six years ago. She and her husband had attended Loudonville High School's production of "The Little Mermaid" at the historical theater.

Their son, Caleb Stout, now a teacher in Millersport, was an elementary music teacher for Loudonville-Perrysville schools at the time. He was conducting the pit orchestra for the show, so the Millersburg couple made the drive from Holmes County to Ashland County for the performance.

"Scott and I had been performing for nearly 30 years at the time," Amy Loveday said, "and as soon as I saw the theater, I wanted to play in it!”

She got her chance a few months later when Director Sally Hollenbach arranged a Loudonville talent show where the Lovedays volunteered to perform. That performance encouraged Hollenbach to invite them to the first Music and Laughter at The Ohio Theatre. They’ve been involved in every production there since.

Lovedays play 'y'all-ternative' music on Route 39 circuit

The Lovedays were already veteran performers. Both natives of the Louisville, Kentucky area, Scott learned to play the guitar while in high school, while Amy marched in the band and was involved in school theater. Their first public performance was at the invitation of their minister at a church dinner, 35 years ago.

Scott Loveday's (recently retired) job as a financial analyst for the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development started in Louisville 34 years ago, took them to Knoxville, Tennessee for 13 years, and then, when it was determined he could do his job from home, to Holmes County, which they had fallen in love with on a previous visit. They lived in Winesburg 13 years before moving to Millersburg.

Scott calls the music they play “y’all-ternative,” a blend of country, folk, bluegrass, and gospel. They play regularly on what Amy calls “the Route 39 circuit, from New Philadelphia to Loudonville,” acknowledging “we’ve not yet gotten to Perrysville.”

They are regular performers at two area wineries, Ugly Bunny near Loudonville and Sunny Slope, between Nashville and Millersburg, and among the venues they regularly play are the New Philadelphia First Town Days, Sugarcreek Swiss Festival, Berlin on the Square and Berlin Harvest Days, the Millersburg Antique Festival, and the Holmes County and Loudonville fairs.

Scott Loveday said they try to use harmony to enliven their singing, noting he felt the loss with the recent death of David Cosby, whom he called “a harmonizing genius."

"We like to play his songs,” Loveday said.

Amy Loveday enjoys working with Hollenbach, whom she called “one of the best sound people I have ever worked with, as well as a terrific manager. She knows her stuff.”

Loveday's first role at the theater was in “Annie,” where she played Miss Hannigan alongside prodigy actress Rebekah Carroll, then a fifth grader whom she still enjoys singing with because of her harmonizing ability.

'Little Shop of Horrors' is next performance by Lovedays in The Ohio Theatre

She is excited about the theater's upcoming production of “Little Shop of Horrors,” a comedy with a small cast that Loveday calls “the most difficult show we have ever done.”

The story is of a boy taken in by a plant shop operator who discovers a unique, unusual plant that he feels will make his benefactor’s plant shop immensely successful.

However, the plant turns out to have difficult, deadly tendencies, which leads to a riotous comedy.

Originally performed as a “B” movie in the 1960s, the play was converted into a musical. Amy Loveday, with fellow performers Jenny Carroll and Rachel Kelly, serve as the doo-wop girls who actually tell the story through song.

“Sally is setting the bar very high with this one,” she promised. “Making it more exciting is the fact we have a completely new performer, Zach Kistler of Wooster, playing the lead role of Seymour, who discovered the mysterious, alluring plant.

Performances are 7 p.m. Feb. 10, 11 and 18, and 2 p.m. Feb. 12 and 19. Tickets are available now through the theater.

Loveday noted that she and her husband “have always performed together, and most enjoy playing before an attentive audience. We like to talk with our audience as we perform. We never sought the bigtime, like in Nashville, preferring to play in our hometowns, be they Louisville, Knoxville, or Holmes County. We also are passionate ambassadors of our kind of music”

Scott Loveday earned his degree in finance at the University of Louisville, while his wife earned a degree at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where she was a classmate of Heisman Trophy winner and all-pro quarterback Peyton Manning, whom she called “not only one of the best quarterbacks ever, but also very smart and a great guy.”

The Lovedays have two children, Caleb, 30, of Millersport and Maria, 22, of Canton.

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Millersburg couple has love affair with Loudonville's Ohio Theatre