The Tater Patch Players in Jasper GA
The Tater Patch Players, founded in 1977, is a vibrant community theater troupe. The Players bring four shows a year to their Pickens County, GA hometown. They also help host an annual Drama and Music camp for young people. Without a permanent home, they perform in many venues in the area, demonstrating their enthusiasm and adaptability. They are currently seeking a home of their own, so that they may expand and bring more to the community.
The short articles below will serve as an introduction to their many current activities and lead you into this website, where you will find everything from photos, to calendars, to articles that will invite you — as an audience member, performer, student or stage hand — to join them. Remember, if it’s entertaining, it’s Tater Patch!
UPCOMING SHOWS
Guys and Dolls will be performed July 29-August 1 and August 5-8. The Sunday performances will be 2 PM matinees. The rest of the shows will be at 7:30 PM. All shows will be at the Pickens Chamber of Commerce on Stegall Street in Lee Newton Park. Tickets are available here on the website by clicking on the button at the top right of the page. Advance tickets are also available at Jasper Drug and both branches of our show sponsor, Community Bank of Pickens County. Advance tickets are $10 for students and $12 for adults. On the website, there is a $1 handling fee. Tickets at the door are $3 more. The Pay What You Can performance is July 29. Details of this program are at the top of this page on the left-hand column.
Smoke on the Mountain will also be at the Pickens Chamber and will be on October 28-31 and November 4-7. Details coming soon!
The Community Bank of Pickens County is a Main Stage sponsor for all of these performances, and we thank them!
GUYS AND DOLLS HEATS UP YOUR SUMMER!
As summer heats up, so does the rehearsal schedule for the upcoming production of Guys and Dolls. Tater Patch Players are singing and dancing up a summer storm as they prepare to bring you this popular musical. The story is a blend of two very different romances, set in the happy chaos of New York’s hustlers, gamblers, and street people in the 1940′s.
Sky Masterson (Patrick Schweigert) is the best of the gamblers. He takes on a bet he is certain he can’t lose. He bets local crap game promoter Nathan Detroit (Tyler Roper) that he can take the virtuous Sister Sarah Brown (Kelsea Beck) from the local Save-A-Soul mission, to Havana for an evening of wining and dining. Meanwhile, Nathan’s fiancée of 14 years, Miss Adelaide (Julia Floweree), is losing her patience with their long engagement. Her only consolation is her certainty that her darling Nathan has given up running his “oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York”. As Nathan and his sidekicks (Andy Fowler, Patrick Hall and Jason Boskey) struggle to find the money to rent the local auto garage for the crap game, they are foiled at every turn by New York’s finest, Lt. Brannigan (Andy Kippenhan). They end up holding the crap game in a most unusual location, where a bet of a very different kind is made.
Come enjoy the wonderful music and dance of this award winning show. Described often as “the perfect musical”, Guys and Dolls is a smooth blend of comedy and romance and song and dance. The neighborhood is populated by a spicy blend of hustlers and show girls, missionaries and drunks. The members of the Tater Patch Players are very busy polishing up their songs and lines to bring these quirky characters to life for you in July and August. The show will be presented at the cozy venue of the Chamber of Commerce Community Room, on Stegall Street within Lee Newton Park. The space will soon be transformed into a theater, complete with a street cafe that will appear on the chamber patio for your intermission enjoyment. The costumes are being sewn and the lines are being learned. The Players hope you and the family will come join them July 29, 30,31 and August 1,5,6,7,8 for a show. The Sunday shows are at 2PM and the rest are at 7:30 PM. Tickets go on sale in July at the Community Bank of Pickens County and at Jasper Drug. Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students, or three dollars more at the door. They may also be bought online by clicking the “Buy Tickets Now” button on the top right of this page.
CAST ANNOUNCED FOR SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN
Music Director Thelma Cagle and Director Marcia Wright are very pleased to announce the cast of Smoke on the Mountain:
Pastor Oglethorpe – Clint Weatherby
June – Tracey Gibson
Burl – Kenneth Kincaid
Vera – Thelma Cagle
Stanley – Jim Brown
Dennis – Eric Reinhardt
Denise – Katie Cagle
Miss Maude – Jan Davis
Miss Myrtle – Sandra Lewis
Performance dates for Smoke on the Mountain are October 28-31 and November 4-7.
THE BUILDING SEARCH CONTINUES
Tater Patchers are still combing the town and country looking for a building we can afford for our new home. We have even begun looking for long-term rental solutions. These are few and far between, but we want you to be sure that we’ve not given up by any means. If you know of any properties that you think would make a theater building or allow us to build a theater, please get in touch. Just one thing that people tend to forget– PARKING. We’ve found several great buildings, but no parking spaces. There’s no point in having the room to build a stage, dressing and rehearsal areas and seating if there is no place for all our patrons to park. Believe us, when we find the place, this website will be the first place we announce it, so keep coming back. And, of course, if you wish to donate to our Building Fund, visit the Fundraising page here on the website for several ways you can help us financially.
