Announcing an exciting innovation for the Gulfport Community Players! We have been phasing in an additional venue for our performances- our newly acquired Rehearsal Hall, from now on to be known as the Back Door Theater.
The Back Door Theater is located at 4919 - 17th Avenue South in Gulfport. Formerly used just for auditions, building sets, rehearsals, meetings, and storage, we have started to have limited engagement productions there. These will be run in addition toour regularly scheduled plays at the City of Gulfport's beautiful Catherine A. Hickman Theater.
The Back Door Theater, though not quite as large as the Hickman Theater, can seat 100 people, and we can have dinner theater productions there. This has already happened. The food is catered, since we can not prepare meals there, but this is something that we could not ever do at the Hickman Theater.
The Back Door Theater is now owned by the Players and we have some very ambitious plans for its future. The performances listed above are just a start. Stayed tuned! There's going to be a lot more to come in the future!
In the words of our President, Eileen Navarro:
"In the future, the Back Door Theater will be transformed from just a building into
a performing arts center. It will serve as a testing ground for new plays, new playwrights, and challenging new projects."
For the past few years, this webmaster has been maintaining another web site for a group which some of you may, or may not, have heard of. The group I'm referring to is The Forever Young Dancers.
This eldery all-male dance group has performed on TV and been interviewed on radio for many years. They've also been written up in the Tampa Tribune, the St. Pete Times, the Gabber, and various other publications throughout the world. They have appeared on stage just about everywhere they've been allowed to, including the Catherine A. Hickman Theater of Gulfport. Every time they've performed at the Hickman, they have had sold-out crowds. At our own Back Door Theater on June 20th, 2008, this proved
to be no exception.
They donate all the money they take in on ticket sales to charity, or some other worthy cause. On Friday, June 20th, at our Back Door Theater, they once again, "danced their pants off" for a worthy cause.
In this case, the Gulfport Community Players was that worthy cause!
UPDATE: Due to the tremendous response of this performance, the Forvever Young Dancers will be
back to the Back Door Theater in the near future! Keep an eye out for them! Who knows what's going to come off next!
The Gulfport Community Players, in association with the Florida Playwrights' Festival, will be staging the comedy/drama entitled,Once More,at our own Back Door Theater in August.
Tickets are on sale now for just $12 each and are available at Eileen's Resale Boutique in Gulfport, at the door, or by calling 727-322-0316 for advance sales.
This play was locally written by Brian Wiggins, and is all about a community theater as it struggles to survive in these modern, cash-strapped times.
The director is Frank Hale and he has a fine cast of 8 people for this premiere event The play will run for 6 performances at the Back Door Theater, from August 22nd through August 31st. Play dates and times: August 22, 23, 29, & 30th at 8 p.m., and August 24th & 31st (Sunday) at 2 p.m.
