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 to our 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."
There's something always happening in Gulfport!
The Gulfport Community Players was proud to have run a new play by long-time member,
Gil Perlroth. It played to sold out performances at the Back Door Theater in February, 2009.
Gil wrote the play, the lyrics, and the 23 songs included in the play. This play took a humorous poke at retirement, but, in a nice way. Daniel Harris was the director of this hit.
The cast (left to right) Bob Wells, Janice Nepon-Sixt, Robert Hines, & Cheryl Moore.
This musical revue contained 23 lively songs dealing with pets, early-bird specials, doctors, exercise, spare time, single bachelors, etc. Obviously the play appealled mostly to the older generation, but, it had some appeal for just about everyone!
Although now closed, the play ran for 6 sold out performances at the Players' Back Door Theater in February, 2009. We do hope you got a chance to see it!
