Tater Patch Players is a community theater group founded in 1977. We are a registered 501(c)3 organization. We are guided by a Board of Directors elected annually.
Through these many years, we’ve put on all sorts of quality productions. We always strive to involve members from throughout the area in the many aspects of production. We have grown from putting on a show during every summer to today’s program. We put on a summer camp for children during the summer, granting scholarships to those who need them. We try to be a positive force in our community, inviting youth in foster care and similar programs to attend our main stage productions; we participate in the Fourth of July parade and were a part of the First Annual Christmas in the Mountains parade and celebration in 2007. We help with the Pickens High School Drama Club’s productions when they need us. Tater Patch is active in the Pickens County Chamber of Commerce, Jasper Merchants Association and a very proud member of the American Association of Community Theaters.
A HOME AT LAST
On Friday, February 25, 2011. the Tater Patch Players, after more than 30 years of bringing plays to Pickens County, purchased a building to turn into their own theater, at 95 Old Philadelphia Lane. Click on the “Contact” tab above and you will see a map to our new home. Thank you so much for all your support and love through the “gypsy” years. From now on, you will know where to find us. The hundreds of volunteer actors, stage hands, scene painters and costumers, and the often overlooked folks who hauled scenery, props and lights from place to place over many years are the backbone of Tater Patch. And a special round of applause goes to you, our audience. We are proud to be able to invite you to our home for your future entertainment. If you want to help with work, ideas, sponsorship or funds, please contact us. For an album of pictures of the first days in our new home, courtesy of knowpickens.com, go to:
http://www.knowpickens.com/photos/taterpatchtheater.asp
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.
Our fondest hope was achieved in February, 2011, when we purchased the building that is now our theater — our home. Located at 95 Philadelphia Lane in Jasper, Georgia, this building made the leap from office/warehouse to functioning theater in just ten weeks. The transformation was inspired by the leadership and guidance of Tater Patch President Robert Countryman. Robert planned, guided and inspired both contractors and volunteers through the build-out process. The transition would have been much more difficult without his guidance.
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. Now, in the new theater, the troupe is expanding their repertoire. They are adding additional plays, workshops, camps and activities for all ages and interests. But quality live theater has always been, and will continue to be, the bedrock of the Tater Patch Players.
PAST PERFORMANCES
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 and 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 Dracula
2010 Almost, Maine
2010 Proof
2010 Guys and Dolls
2010 Smoke on the Mountain
2011 The Odd Couple
2011 Peter Pan
2011 Epic Proportions
2011 Laugh Out Loud — a director’s workshop project
2012 The Dixie Swim Club
2012 The Foreigner
2012 Gypsy
2012 The Miracle Worker
2013 Driving Miss Daisy
2013 Grace and Glorie
2013 Lend Me a Tenor
2013 The Fantasticks
2013 Dashing Through the Snow
2014 The Lion in Winter
2014 No Sex Please, We’re British
2014 The Savannah Disputation
2014 Play On!
2014 Postmortem
2014 Little Shop of Horrors
2015 Farce of Nature
2015 Nunsense
2015 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
2015 It’s a Wonderful Life: A Radio Play for the Stage
2016 Sylvia
2016 Noises Off
2016 The Fox on the Fairway
2016 Mama Won’t Fly
2016 In-laws, Outlaws, and Other People (That Should Be Shot)
2017 The Taming of the Shrew
2017 Inherit the Wind
2017 Charlotte’s Web
2017 Man of La Mancha
2017 The Savannah Sipping Society
2017 You Can’t Take It With You
2018 Those Crazy Ladies in the House on the Corner
2018 Death by Design
2018 Folktales
2018 First Baptist of Ivy Gap
2018 The Second Time Around
2018 A Christmas Story
2019 The Kitchen Witches
2019 Drinking Habits
2019 Greetings!
2019 On Golden Pond
2019 Dearly Beloved
2020 Messiah on the Frigidaire
2020 The Aurelia Women’s League Flower and Garden Show Gala Planning Committee
(*cut short by COVID restrictions)
2021 The Aurelia Women’s League Flower and Garden Show Gala Planning Committee
2021 Funny Little Thing Called Love
2021 Sex Please, We’re Sixty
2021 The Charitable Sisterhood Christmas Spectacular
2022 Wild Women of Winedale
2022 The Cemetery Club
2022 Sister Amnesia’s Country Western Nunsense Jamboree
2023 Love Letters
2023 Steel Magnolias
2023 Independence Day at Happy Meadows
2023 The Guys
2023 A Candle in the Window
2024 The Glass Menagerie
2024 Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks
2024 Tuesdays with Morrie
2024 Exit Laughing
THE BOARD
OFFICERS
President
September Hoeler
Vice President
Betsy Robbe
Secretary
Jeff Duval
Treasurer
Nan Nawrocki
BOARD MEMBERS
Kirstin Davis
Alan Johnson
Ann Mackenzie
Cindy Parks
Eve Sauer
Maralie Thomas
Phyllis Zerkle
Production Committee : Alan Johnson
Play Selection Committee: Phyllis Zerkle
Facilities Manager: Alan Johnson
