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Introducing ...
. . . Us!
Community theater gives you a chance to see your neighbors doing something you didn’t know they could do — and neither did they.
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Athenians are heavy theater users. They support touring shows at the Classic Center, they fill the Morton for locally produced extravaganzas, they proudly watch their children act, sing and dance, and they travel to Atlanta to see spectaculars at the Fox. And thousands of them come to Town & Gown.
What’s more, both university and nonacademic people use theater as a recreation and a mode of expression, not just appearing onstage but also toiling backstage to make performing art. Hundreds contribute through Town & Gown: students, business owners, professionals, retail workers and craftspeople.
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Town & Gown stands apart from other arts organizations in several ways:
- We’ve been producing theater in Athens for 47 years.
- All the talent and labor that go into putting up a show come from volunteers, as does all the effort it takes to manage the company. We have no paid staff and no permanent officers.
- In the Athens Community Theater building we have one of the area’s most intimate playhouses.
- Except for exterior and grounds maintenance, Town & Gown pays all the running expenses for its theater building and is currently renovating the interior to enhance comfort and production quality.
- Nearly all production and overhead costs are paid from ticket sales revenue.
- Town & Gown takes on the challenge of presenting twelve shows a year.
- The company has committed itself to bring not only the classics to Athens audiences, but also excellent new properties. Along with productions of Tennessee Williams, Cole Porter, William Shakespeare and Alan Ayckbourn, we have given world premieres of works by half a dozen local playwrights.
- Town & Gown has a mission to produce, perform and promote theater, but no training or educational mission.
- Casting of our Mainstage shows is entirely based on auditions that are open to the whole community.
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