A conversation with Peter Hicks ’80 and Laura Hicks ’81
PETER:
Fall 1979 was my second year, and Laura’s first. I was a music major. She was psychology. We hadn’t met yet. Dan and Judy Oberholtzer, who ran the Music Department along with Sidney Smith, decided to put on a dinner theater production of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” as a collaboration between the music, theater, and culinary arts programs. There was a little pit band, and we did the show in one of the rehearsal rooms of C building (Fine & Performing Arts), and they served dinner. They had tables like a café. It was really wonderful, and the food was very good. People loved it.
I was used to getting leads in HCC shows. I had wanted to play either Charlie Brown or Snoopy. After auditions, they posted the cast list, and it said, “Peter Hicks: Linus.” And I was like, I’m not playing Linus! And they had cast a girl as Snoopy. I was miffed. Miffed!
LAURA: I knew the Overholtzers because they lived in Belchertown, where I grew up. I was walking down the hallway one day. Judy Overholtzer saw me. She said, “Laura, why don’t you try out for the play?” I had no intention of trying out, but I did. I got the part of Snoopy.
PETER: As it turned out, I loved playing Linus. It was so much fun. As I look back their casting was perfect. Laura was a great Snoopy.
As I look back their casting was perfect. Laura was a great Snoopy.
LAURA: We did the play, and I had a crush on him. But all my classes were in Donahue. I had no reason to go to C building, but that’s where the music majors were. As head of the music club, Peter ran a coffee shop on the first floor where the musicians would hang out. I made sure to walk past so I could say hi.
PETER: The first time I ever saw her was before Christmas when we had our first read-through for the show. She was very unusual. She was wearing like this grey Pope’s hat and a grey cape. Right away I could see she marched to the beat of a different drummer. My first thought was, wouldn’t it be funny if this was a woman I’d marry someday. Sure enough, that’s how it ended up.
LAURA: After graduating from HCC, he went to Hartt School of Music in Hartford. I graduated a year later and went to Mount Holyoke College. We both ended up graduating in 1983 and got married that summer.
PETER: We had both come from big families. Six kids in mine. Five in hers. Neither of our families were well off. I wouldn’t use the word poor, but we didn’t have a lot of money. HCC was perfect for us financially. I had just started looking toward music as a life. I wasn’t really trained in it, so I thought HCC would be a good fit. I liked being home. I wanted to be near my family.
LAURA: I grew up on a farm. I was an above average student but terrible at the SATs, and I did not like the huge class sizes at UMass, so I picked HCC. I was the co-salutatorian of my class, and received the Harriet Newhall Scholarship to Mount Holyoke, so my tuition was free. HCC gave me the potential to bloom. I played on the basketball team. I didn’t know I was going to do theater. The professors were very attentive. I think the quality is fantastic.
PETER: Our experience with HCC was wonderful, and all five of our children went to HCC. It’s our family school.
LAURA: It’s been not only a great education for them, but it has saved us thousands of dollars.
PETER: Music’s been our lives, really, but when we were raising our kids we weren’t doing musical theater. For 35 years, I was a music director of our church. Laura and I have an act, “Musically Married.” We sing out. I’ve written a lot of music.
LAURA: He’s written Christmas cantatas and Easter cantatas. He has two CDs of original Christian music, and we have toured around New England churches, singing.
PETER: In 2013, we both auditioned for parts in Les Misérables at Exit 7 Theater in Ludlow, and we both got parts in the cast. I got bitten again by the theater bug. I’ve played Scrooge four times – that’s kind of my role. I was Fagan in “Oliver.” Exit 7 just did a “Scrooge” musical that I wrote. I’ve been able to make a career of community theater.
LAURA: Which goes back to our roots, meeting here.
PETER: HCC really did set us on a direction. It’s a great part of our life.
Peter Hicks is the retired manager of Eddie’s Furniture in Holyoke, the Hicks family business. Laura Hicks runs Merciful Management, a property company owned by her and her husband. They are the proud parents of five HCC graduates: Samuel ’11, Abigail ’12, Julia ’15, Angela ’17, and Rebecca ’20.
