The Cumberland County Playhouse will celebrate 60 years of being a part of the Upper Cumberland community this July.
Director Bryce McDonald said former Broadway performers Paul and Mary Crabtree founded the Playhouse in 1965. McDonald said Crabtree was beloved by the Cumberland County Community after putting on a show called “The Perils of Pinocchio” which featured the local children. McDonald said the Crabtrees were about to move away from Crossville until one night in 1963, Mr. Crabtree went out to dinner that ended up turning into an impromptu town hall.
“They asked Paul Crabtree what do we do to keep what happens with “The Perils of Pinocchio” here in Cumberland County,” McDonald said. “Is there anything that we can do to make that happen because our kids are so changed by that experience, and he jokingly said build me a theater and I’ll stay, and they did.”
McDonald said the Cumberland County Playhouse is the largest professional not-for-profit theater in a rural setting in the state of Tennessee. McDonald said the support Crossville gave back in 1963 still lives on today and is one of the main reasons the Playhouse is still open today.
“Not go back to harsher time in life,” McDonald said. “When covid was hitting so many theaters similar to our size across the nation shuttered their doors and could not reopen, and our community refused to let that happen. You know, every panel that I sat on said your donations are gonna drop, your gonna lose your patrons and this and this. Our patrons and this community started giving twice a year, four times a year when they had previously had only given once a year and the minute that any sort of seating or shows they showed up in rows. This community once again refused to let this organization fall.”
McDonald said he believes people enjoy the playhouse as it is a space for people to gather and enjoy a show regardless of what is going on in the world.
“Laughter is one of the best healing medicines in the world to sit in the room with 500 people and to laugh at the same thing, that’s infectious,” McDonald said. “I mean that’s like the best jolt of adrenaline you can get and so that is super important, and when those things don’t happen, it changes your society. You see more anxiety, you see more depression, you see more people isolate themselves. So I think having that outlet to come and see artistic expression, people long for it.”
McDonald said a way the playhouse is celebrating 60 years is by installing new seating and a state-of-the-art sound system. McDonald said on July 15 the playhouse will be performing a production and the first act will include a retrospective of the last 60 years. The second act will be about the life of Mary Crabtree.
