Carbon Schuylkill Community Theater reunites after five-year hiatus

Their mission is to provide a quality theatrical experience that can be appreciated by audiences from the Carbon/Schuylkill area.

After a five-year hiatus, the Carbon Schuylkill Community Theater is back and will perform “The Madrigal Dinner Show” at 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the St. Peter’s Community Resource Center, 177 Main Road, Franklin Township.

The dinner show will be performed under special arrangements through Heuer Publishing. Doors open at 5 p.m.

Preshow entertainment will be presented by the “Black Ties and Pearls.”

The food will be catered by Snyder’s, Have Pig will Travel. The meal will include barbecued pork, chicken, corn and potato. Beverages and dessert will also be provided for this event by the Theater Company.

The show is a mix of comedy, music, food and fun, according to board President Jonathan Blackwell-Rodgers.

“This is an ideal way to reintroduce the community to our theater company,” Blackwell-Rodgers said. “This production will fill your belly with delicious food, your ears with wonderful harmonic sounds, and your evening with laughter and fellowship.”

Blackwell-Rodgers said he believes the group will excel.

“I am very excited to have our company back in Lehighton, to better serve our Carbon friends for the next few years,” he said. “I am really looking forward to working with St. Peter’s Community Resource Center, and I am even more excited to be able to share the talents and energy of this production with my hometown.”

Event Coordinator Kathi Deutsch Charles added, “Theater is something that makes you breathe with a different kind of happiness. It’s an honor for myself and the other actors to share this feeling and new life of the Carbon Schuylkill Community Theater.” “We have been working very hard on The Madrigal Dinner Show, with the hopes that it is successful, and that our guests will want more and when they come back, they will bring a friend,” Deutsch Charles said. “The Theater makes people happy, and we are more than happy to share our time and talents.”

Beginnings

Blackwell-Rodgers said the Carbon Schuylkill Community Theater originally started 10 years ago under the direction of Janet Sager.

After a few years, he said Sager turned the theater over to an interim board, which put on their first show and worked with the core group of actors, actresses and a group of proud supporters.

After a few months, the first official elections were held and the group voted in board members from Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, Tamaqua and a few other communities, Blackwell-Rodgers said.

Under that board, he said the theater performed a few productions, and after just over two years, agreed to merge with the Tamaqua Area Community theater to share resources, manpower, and to have a more consistent performing space.

In 2017, the theater group began to look into partnerships to expand and begin to perform under the original name, Blackwell-Rodgers said.

This June, he said they began private fundraising efforts to open the doors and form a Carbon County partnership.

“The St. Peter’s Community Resource Center was very interested in a partnership that would not only benefit the center, but the Theater group and the community as a whole,” Blackwell-Rodgers said. “Pastor Jeff from the Resource Center worked with our board president to finalize the details.”

Blackwell-Rodgers enlisted some of the original members and new friends to make this endeavor possible.

The transitional board includes Blackwell-Rodgers; Vice President/Secretary Katie Evans; Treasurer Brenda Fritzinger; public relations/event coordinator Kathi Deutsch Charles; and fundraising chair Constance Rose Cunningham.

“The board has been supportive, creative and is very excited to see this new partnership take off,” he said.

Blackwell-Rodgers said tickets are limited, and anyone interested in finding out more information may email csctheater@yahoo.com, or call 484-629-8204.

The group will also be hosting auditions on Sept. 25 and 27 for the Christmas season production. The title has not yet been released due to securing the rights, through it will be a family-friendly show.