It took just $10 down and $10 a month in 1957 to buy a home site in the newly forming community of Port Charlotte, just north of the Peace River and Charlotte Harbor, Northerners were responding to General Development Corporation’s ad campaign to retire in paradise, and Port Charlotte began to grow rapidly, creating demands for retail, business and social services, health care and recreation.
And entertainment.
Since our modest beginnings (see history) in 1961, our Community Theatre Company has produced over 300 theatrical productions with over 2,200 individual performances. Charlotte Players have also contracted talent national talent for almost 100 different entertainment productions over the last 12 years. We are very proud of our contributions to the arts here in Charlotte County.
We haven’t forgotten our roots: acting classes. Besides providing acting classes for adults, every summer our “Kids Onstage” program puts hundreds of children in acting camps where they learn the fundamentals of the craft and appear in their own production.
The Players also provide an invaluable community service through our partnership with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library. Since 2012, the Charlotte County Imagination Library has given sent over 125,000 free books to registered pre-school children in Charlotte County.
The real legacy of the Charlotte Players is decades of outstanding cultural arts provided to the community. Bringing to the stage live, classic stage productions. Charlotte Players have, for over 60 years. Entertained and enlightened tens of thousands of theater-goers. The goal remains to do the same for decades to come.