As the Lehigh Valley theater community mourns the loss of Bill Mutimer, head of the theater department at Northampton Community College, his colleagues at the Bethlehem Township school have announced NCC’s production of “A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and the Northampton Community Colleges Summer Theatre will go on as scheduled.

“Theater was Bill’s life,” says Brett Oliveira, NCC technical director. “The best way that we can all honor and remember him is to keep acting, creating, singing, painting, dancing, going to see a show or directing.”

Mutimer died March 6 in his Allentown home. Mutimer, 60, was producing artistic director of Northampton Community Colleges Summer Theatre, which he founded in 2017. Mutimer was drama director, Northwestern Lehigh Middle School and Northwestern Lehigh High School, including musicals in the Freddy Awards program.

Mutimer had directed “The Great American Trailer Park Musical,” Feb. 22-25, Cedar Crest College, and “Mamma Mia!,” Feb. 29-March 3, Northwestern Lehigh High School. The last show he directed at NCC was “Collective Rage: A Play in Five Betties,” Jan. 18-22.

Mutimer was to direct “A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” April 18-21, NCC, and had already cast the show.

Oliveira and NCC theater professors Clair M. Freeman and Kevin Gaughenbaugh will co-direct the show.

“This is a show Bill picked with the cast he wanted and we will honor his wishes,” Oliveira says.

Oliveira said that he, Freeman and Gaughenbaugh will ensure the 2024 season of Northampton Community Colleges Summer Theater will take place. The season, June 5-July 28, includes “West Side Story,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Mamma Mia!” and “Dr. Seuss’s Cat in the Hat,” June 5 to July 28.

“Everybody loved him and wants to pitch in,” Oliveira says.

Mutimer had completed some of the casting for the summer shows.

“There will be different directors but we will honor all of Bill’s casting choices,” Oliveira says.

“It’s going to take a village,” Oliveira observes of NCC summer theater. “Bill worked too hard and too long and he would want it to go on. He built it to last, and we want to do a season he would be proud of.”

The most recent NCC show, “The Laramie Project,” directed by Clair Freeman, opened as scheduled March 7-11. There was an announcement about Mutimer before each performance.

In an email to the NCC community, NCC President David A. Ruth said, “Bill was an iconic symbol of our theater program and a dear friend, colleague and mentor to so many.

“Bill’s passing leaves an enormous void in the heart of our campus community. He transformed the theater program into one of the best in the area and a highlight of the college’s arts program.”

Mutimer directed and performed on nearly every stage in the Lehigh Valley, including Pennsylvania Playhouse, Civic Theater, Muhlenberg College, Cedar Crest College, MunOpCo Music Theatre and Pennsylvania Youth Theatre.

Mutimer was artistic director of Main Street Theater, Quakertown, for many years, and co-owner and artistic director, Center for the Arts on Main, Quakertown, before becoming an adjunct professor at Muhlenberg College.

Mutimer was the final artistic director of Theatre Outlet after George Miller and Kate Scuffle traveled to Ireland. In 2010, he began teaching theater at Northampton Community College.

“Theater is about connection and building a community, and so was Bill,” says Oliveira. “His NCC students were his kids, the theater community was his family, the stage was his home and our theater patrons were his friends and neighbors.”

Funeral services were held in Atlanta, Ga., where Mutimer’s family lives.

A Celebration of Life will be held at NCC toward the end of the semester. Details are to be announced.

“The Maids” at Cedar Crest:

Cedar Crest College Performing Arts presents “The Maids,” March 21-24, Samuels Theater.

The 90-minute play was written in 1947 by Jean Genet, a French criminal and social outcast turned writer and playwright who became a leading figure in the avant-garde theater, especially the Theater of the Absurd.

Genet loosely based “The Maids” on the infamous sisters Christine and Léa Papin, who brutally murdered their employer and her daughter in Le Mans, France, in 1933.

In “The Maids,” Solonge (Sofia Barbour) and Claire (Ashly Rodriguez) are sisters who are housemaids in the same home. When Madame, their mistress (Lizbeth Parra), is away, they take turns role-playing Madame while the other plays her maid.

In this way, they portray both sides of the division of power. Each maid, when playing Madame, demeans and abases her sister. The maid whose turn it is to be Madame makes demands of a sadomasochistic nature, such as commanding her sister to kneel and kiss Madame’s shoe.

The ultimate goal of their role-playing is the murder of Madame, which they think is the only way to free themselves of subjugation.

Clair M. Freeman directs what is described as a “lethal erotic triangle.”

The production is for adults only.

“The Maids,” 7 p.m. March 21, 22, 23; 2 p.m. March 24, Cedar Crest College, Samuels Theater, 100 College Drive, Allentown. 610-740-3780, https://www.cedarcrest.edu

“Curtain Rises” is a column about the theater, stage shows, the actors in them and the directors and artists who make them happen. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com