1978 Li’l Abner
1979 Blithe Spirit
1979 Brigadoon
1980 Oklahoma
1980 America on Stage
1981 South Pacific
1981 Festival on Broadway
1982 The Music Man
1982 An Evening to Remember
1982 Bits & Pieces: A Revue
1983 See How They Run
1984 Annie Get Your Gun
1984 Hooray for Hollywood!
1985 The Sound of Music
1985 Forties Favorites
1985 Pickens Saturday Night
1986 It’s Magic
1986 You Can’t Take It With You
1986 On Broadway
1987 Li’l Abner
1987 Plaza Suite
1988 Sugar
1988 A Date With Disney
1989 Streetcar Named Desire
1989 Rockin’ and Rollin’
1990 A Broadway Trilogy
1990 Fractured Fairy Tales
1991 Dillard of Cattlehurst
1991 Godspell
1991 All I Have to do is Dream
1992 Meet Me in St. Louis
1992 Country Cross Roads
1993 The Mousetrap
1993 Gospel Jubilee
1994 The King & I
1995 Oklahoma
1996 Nunsense
1996 Grease
1996 Regarding Broadway
1997 Picnic
1997 Mountain Magic
1998 Bus Stop
1998 Oliver!
1998 Crockett – Himself
1999 Steel Magnolias
1999 Dark of the Moon
1999 Laundry and Bourbon
1999 My Grandfather’s Ram
1999 McWilliams & the Lightning
1999 Redemption
2000 Spider’s Web
2000 You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown
2001 Play On
2001 Hay Fever
2002 Our Finest Hour
2002 Crimes of the Heart
2002 The Odd Couple
2003 Annie
2003 Our Finest Hour (Canton)
2003 A Mountain Christmas Carol
2004 The Wizard of Oz
2004 Slugnut, We Need to Talk
2004 I’m Herbert
2005 Mousetrap
2005 Curiouser & Curiouser
2005 Our Finest Hour
2006 Arsenic and Old Lace
2006 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
2006 Harvey
2006 An Evening on Broadway
2007 You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown
2007 Li’l Abner
2007 Blithe Spirit
2008 Our Town
2008 A Midsummer Night’s Dream
2008 Yesterday in the Hills
2009 Steel Magnolias
2009 The Producers
2009 Smoke on the Mountain

History of the Tater Patch Players

The Tater Patch Players were born in 1977 when a group of people from the surrounding area came together to discuss the need for community theater in North Georgia. From Pickens County there were, among others, Berry Roper, Sam Rothermel, Paul Carden, Tom Quinton, Joe Cumming, Lawton Baggs, Janet Vardaman, and Lee Etta Ligon. All were active in the Pickens Community and saw the need for performances in our area. They were very organized, formed a Board, elected directors — then someone said, “Let’s put on a play” and the fun began, and hasn’t stopped yet.

Alan Van Lyle of North Georgia College was hired to direct the first play and they chose L’il Abner. The performance was done in the Tate Elementary School Auditorium, and that was the troupe’s home for many years. Because we performed in the schools so often, our season was always the same as the school year — that is, our 1977 season, ran through the summer of ’78. For many years, the troupe performed just one summer musical, then began to expand into other types of plays and sometimes featured work by local playwrights.

Tater Patch has always been a family endeavor. Community theater offers young people an opportunity to gain poise and confidence. Theater offers everyone the lessons that are to be heard in good drama. And it offers everyone an opportunity to laugh together and enjoy community spirit.

March 28, 2009 – An article on community theater by Tater Patch Players president Robert Countryman

Show by Show – How Community Theater Gets By
(as published in the May 28 Pickens County Progress)

Thanks to Tater Patch Players’ audience for the outstanding and supportive crowds at Steel Magnolias. After the show several people asked if Tater Patch had gotten a lot closer to its fund-raising goals because it put on a successful show. Just to make it clearer for friends and fans of Tater Patch, the “business” end of Community Theater doesn’t work that way. We put on shows and expect that each show will pay for itself and the start-up costs for the next show. We are not in the business of raising money. That’s why the current fundraising campaign had been mentioned so often in the news and on our website (www. taterpatchplayers.org). Fundraising for a building is a separate part of the group’s operations. As a matter of fact, the troupe is a Not For Profit organization – what is known as a 501 (c) (3) under IRS rules. So it is not trying to make a profit from its shows. We just want to be a part of the community by putting on good shows and hopefully, providing other benefits. And that is why, when the decision to make a major expenditure is made, a special fundraising effort has to happen, and the funds raised have to be set aside specially until the goal is reached. That is what is happening in Tater Patch’s drive to buy a performance space.

Every production by any community theater involves some pretty standard things that must be paid for. Royalties are fees paid to who ever owns the rights to the play, music, musical or whatever the troupe performs. Often, for big musicals, the scripts and scores are not sold, but must be rented. For “regular” plays, scripts are bought. Sometimes, in the case of a Shakespearean play, or something written and donated by a supporter, all the cost is in the photocopying. But this is the exception, not the rule.

As it now stands with Tater Patch, a location must be obtained for each performance. Once there is a permanent home, that facility will still require some ongoing payments for the normal things we all pay – mortgage loan perhaps, insurance, property taxes, utilities. The attraction of a permanent home is that we will be able to schedule as much rehearsal time on the actual stage we perform on, and decide our own available performance dates. Right now, a lot of the rehearsals are done in offices, stores, borrowed space, and barns – wherever generous friends welcome the Tater Patchers. As a rule, though, the more rehearsal that happens on the actual set, the better the show will be. Tater Patch aims to bring the best shows possible to its audiences. The locations where we perform are never free. There is always a rent amount to be paid for the venue. And often, there is a limit to the amount of rehearsal time that is available in that venue. In some locations, the stage must literally be built from the ground up. The lights and other equipment must be hung. Scenery, makeup mirrors, costume racks, props, and sometimes even chairs must all be brought in and put in place. And after the last show, usually that same day, it must all be taken down, hauled away, and put away or returned to whoever loaned it. And Tater Patch Players have been doing this for 32 years while still bringing quality performances to their fans and supporters.

This article is not meant to be a litany of complaints, just of an explanation of some “business as usual” for community theater groups. Tater Patch does a masterful job of finding venues it can afford and that will be suitable, to one degree or another, for a performance. We spend an enormous amount of time juggling schedules and planning to make this work. But available and suitable performance spaces are becoming scarcer and will continue to be more expensive to rent. But we keep on because the performers and crew love theater and love putting on shows for you.

The Board of Directors and many Tater Patch members are committed to bringing both quality shows and other entertaining and beneficial programs to our community. There has been a desire for more activities for kids and we want to expand our youth program. There have been requests for dinner theater, which was attempted and faced many cost- and venue-related issues. The group still wants to address this request. Members have expressed an interest in having classic movie festivals, Renaissance-festival events, teaching film-making and theatrical makeup; the list goes on and on. We are, first and foremost, a creative bunch.

This is the goal of your Tater Patch Players. Part of our mission statement reads: “We will promote and foster drama, live theater, and the performing arts in Pickens County. We will entertain and enrich our audiences. We will promote a creative environment”. And that, in a nutshell, is what our drive to have four permanent walls around us, is about. This will not come from the revenues of plays. Before they are even received, those are already committed to putting on the next play, and the one after that. Our home will come from the support of Tater Patch’s community and people who care about the quality of life that a strong performing arts group can contribute.

May 27,2009 — THE PRODUCERS       –  Nan’s update

Dance rehearsals and singing rehearsals are well underway.  Above are some pictures of the first run through of the opening dance number.  ChoreographerDenver Clark puts the ensemble through a variety of steps.  The  people of Shubert Alley are waiting to hear from the King of Broadway!

The Producers has won more Tony Awards than any other Broadway musical.  The first community theater production of the show was last fall so we’re proud to be one of the leaders in community theater by bringing the show to Pickens County on July 10, 11, 12, 16, 17, 18 at the PHS Auditorium.  Show times are 7:30 PM  except for July 12 which is a 2:00 PM matinee.

March 25, 2009 – BOARD OF DIRECTORS UPDATES

Tater Patch Players welcomes new Board of Directors member Jan O’Kelley.  Jan appeared in our last Bistro production, The Booger Holler Opry,  in the jug band.  She is a fine singer and guitarist.  During the current fundraising campaign she has been a well-spring of ideas and effort.  I couldn’t have put together the Auction Gala without her encouragement, help and support.  So welcome aboard the Board!

Also,  current Board member Mike Robertson steps into the recently vacated position of Vice-President.  We’ve already given him a huge list of “to-do” items and he’s hard at work for Tater Patch.

The Play Selection Committee is busily reading its assigned plays and writing synopses and recommendations.  We hope, when we get our new home, to present a large and varied assortment of shows to you, our audience.

First, thanks to all of you who helped with and came to our Auction Gala!   We want thank all of our auction item donors, and our food and refreshment donors — Ably Asian Cuisine, The Woodbridge Inn, The Fireside Cafe and Pub, and Trout’s Beverages.  When you visit any of these places, thank them for helping Tater Patch Players!  Over 100 bidders came, saw and bid like mad on wonderful items.  Many left with bargains, some left empty handed — all left happy.  Financially the auction  was very successful, and the $20,000 Capital Grant from PCCRA presented at the start of the festivities, was like icing on the cake.  Read More→

Tater Patch Players
PO Box 267
Jasper, GA 30143
770-547-1096

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TaterPatchPlayers@gmail.com

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