When many people think of theater in Greenville, their minds seldom leave the Peace Center or Christ Church’s own auditorium. However, Greenville and the Upstate is home to a plethora of community theaters and theatrical programs.

The Warehouse Theater is one of these community theaters. The Warehouse is a small black-box style theater that specializes in unique and intimate productions. This Not-For-Profit theater focuses on bringing quirky and exciting theater to the Upstate. The theater’s mission statement describes these goals well: “The Warehouse theater chooses plays that stretch the imagination of Upstate audiences, energize and excite the community with Intimate, Intense and Unexpected performances exploring and celebrating the complexities of our time.”

The Warehouse explores these complexities by putting on contemporary plays, but they also remember to cherish the classics. This season the theater will perform a number of interesting pieces.  “Eurydice” is a modern interpretation of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth by playwright Sarah Ruhl. CCES’s own Anne Tromsness is directing this play, and it will be performed from January 25 through February 16. This spring the Warehouse Theater will be performing Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet. This will be at the Warehouse Theater March 22 through April 13.

The Warehouse Theater is not the only active community theater in the Upstate. Centre Stage South Carolina is in downtown Greenville, and has been active in its current location since 1997. One highlight at Centre Stage is its annual New Play Festival. At this festival, playwrights from across the country, and sometimes from other nations, summit new plays to Centre Stage. After a week long festival, a winner is chosen to have his/her play performed in the next season.

The 2007 New Play Festival Playwright-in-Residence, Lee Blessing,  has deemed the New Play Festival “one of the most important elements of contemporary play development (in) the region.” Though the New Play Festival is an important part of the Centre Stage, the theater also puts on many productions during its season. The theater will be performing their original show, “Rock ‘n Roll Forever” from January 24 through February 23. Centre Stage will also show “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” This famous broadway musical is described by Centre Stage as, “…light, fast-paced, witty, irreverent and one of the funniest musicals ever written….” This play will be performed from the end of March through April.

Fountain Inn is a farther hike for most Christ Church students, but this small town is home to a great community theater. The Fountain Inn Center for Visual and Performing Arts has created the F.I.R.E. Series. This program works to bring Broadway style musicals to Fountain Inn. Earlier this season, they performed “The Sound of Music,” where Mrs. Tina Batchelder-Schwab, junior Andre Batchelder-Schwab, and sophomore Maggie Ramierez were members of the cast. Later this season, F.I.R.E. will perform “Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, Jr.”  But, this show will only be performed for one weekend in March.

These are just a few of the many community theaters in Greenville. To get a more thorough understanding of the community theater options in the Upstate, visit UpstateOnStage.com. This website was created by Christ Church’s Director of the Arts, Mr. David Sims. The most useful feature of Upstate Onstage is its calendar feature. This calendar displays the different shows that will be on at the eighteen different member theaters in the area. These member theaters include: The Distracted Globe Theater Company, The Warehouse Theater, Centre Stage, Upstate Shakespeare Festival, South Carolina Children’s Theater, Greenville Little Theater, F.I.R.E. and The Peace Center.