Lindsey Foland grew up around the theater, so it was natural that she wanted to work in the performing arts as an adult. She had the talent to do on-stage acting, but she seemed to thrive in her behind-the-scenes roles.
“She knew every aspect of the theater,” said John Foland, her father, who lives in Port St. Lucie, Fla. “She understood the publicity of it, she understood the management of it, and she was great with the artistic ability.”
Ms. Foland functioned as an actress, director and production manager during her theater career, her father said. Her versatility made her very good at what she did.
“I heard about her from friends of friends,” said Caren Carr, her partner of 19 years. “And they said she was a force. They were right.”
Lindsey Foland, of Atlanta, died April 20 at Grady Memorial Hospital of respiratory failure. She was 61.
Her body has been cremated and a memorial service has been scheduled for 2 p.m., May 27, in the chapel of Saint Mark United Methodist Church, Atlanta. Cremation Society of Georgia was in charge of arrangements.
Ms. Foland got her first taste of acting under her father’s direction at his local community theater in Indiana. And as much as she loved the performing arts, she did not participate in her high school drama club.
“I didn’t realize she had as great a talent as she did until she was 15,” Mr. Foland said. “That was when she played Frankie in ‘The Member of the Wedding,’ and she was really good. She had an innate sense of picking up a script, reading it and knowing the characters.”
After high school, Ms. Foland attended Indiana University and studied theater. During her studies she was introduced to children’s theater, when she began directing productions, her father said. She eventually withdrew from the university and began working for her father at his recently acquired dinner theater as a stage manager.
“But she had such talent, I started having her audition for parts,” Mr. Foland said. “And about two years later she went to New York and planned to make her rounds as an actress.”
In the meantime, she worked as a production manager at a theater club in Manhattan, her father said. Before her career as an actress could get started, she was offered a job with a traveling theater company in the late-'70s or early-‘80s, which brought her to Atlanta.
While living in Atlanta, Ms. Foland worked at several local spots, including Upstairs at Gene and Gabe's and Showcase Cabaret. She also worked with a theater out of Greensboro, N.C., the Broach Theatre. Ms. Foland would spend several weeks in North Carolina working and then come back to Atlanta after the show closed.
“I felt it was important that she be able to do that,” Ms. Carr said. “So she could work and do and what she loved.”
Ms. Foland is also survived by sisters, Kristen Foland Howard Sullivan of Vero Beach, Fla., and Michele Foland Gaw of Port St. Lucie, Fla.; and brother Jon Howe Foland of Las Vegas.
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