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Welcome to Three Notch Theatre
Welcome to Three Notch Theatre, the new home of The Newtowne Players. Before becoming a theatre, this building served as the Lexington Park Memorial Library. The new library was built about two years ago and is now located on Shangra-la drive, just down the road from us.
Interestingly enough that was about the same time that I moved to St. Mary's county, from Lugano, Switzerland, where I worked for a small liberal arts college. Prior to that I lived in Los Angeles, and worked professionally in the entertainment industry for several years. After moving here, I worked for a short while in Arlington, VA as the production manager for Signature Theatre. Though it was a fantastic opportunity to work for Eric Schaffer, I found the commute to and from work difficult for me and my family. I began to look closer to home, and soon began to form the theatre troupe, The Newtowne Players. We began to perform in the surrounding areas. The group quickly began to grow, and it wasn't long before I began to realize the necessity for a permanent space the group could call home.
As a group, we tried several different avenues to find places to perform. Our first true production was held in the basement of the (former) Do-Dah Deli in Leonardtown, MD. It was received with much enthusiasm, and was a success, however, the basement could not become a permanent home. We continued to look at a variety of venues, even performing in the streets for "Hot Summer Nights on Fenwick" and presented a "Mystery Dinner Theatre" at the Olde Breton Inn for the Knights of Columbus. We presented different proposals to various groups to create a home for The Newtowne Players here in St. Mary's County. Though discouraged at times, we never gave up, and today we have achieved what many thought to be impossible. We have a home, appropriately named Three Notch Theatre, home of The Newtowne Players. Our lease was approved by the Board of County Commissioners in November of 2004, and has an option for up to 8 years.
The last several months have been busy. There was much to do to convert the former Lexington Park Library into a theatre. We have a wonderful core group of volunteers, and they have all spent many hours cleaning, carpeting, painting, designing, rehearsing, and yes building. The stage, the set and the risers took a tremendous amount of man hours to build, but boy are they worth it! For the risers, we received assistance from a structural Engineer, Ed Reed. They are incredibly built, and we owe him at special thank you for helping us out with something so important to us, as well as our audience members. On the risers sit just over 100 beautiful padded theatre seats in blue. These were a donation from Studio Theatre in Washington, DC, and Serge, we hope you will come and visit us soon to see what we have accomplished. Thank you for believing in us right from the start. As for the stage, that is something truly different for this area, and we hope our audience members will be impressed with it as we are. It is a revolving stage. This makes set changes easy and quick. Amazingly, it operates very smoothly, and we can't wait to see the reaction from our patrons when they come to our theatre for the first time.
Now a lot of this could not have happened without the support from the surrounding community, the volunteers and the long standing members of the Newtowne Players. Several of the local lumber companies donated loads of lumber to construct the stage, set and risers. We also received new carpet for our lobby, paint for our walls, and furniture that will serve as set pieces, or for our cast and crew to enjoy backstage in the green room. By the way, our green room is green, and quite large. With a private bathroom for the cast and crew, private stalls to change in, and even a kitchenette to serve ourselves coffee and tea while waiting to perform. We have large mirrors all around that were, yes, a donation. As for our costume shop, we were given a complete bridal shop. Since then, we have had a steady stream of wonderful donations from our friends and neighbors, so we have a wonderful beginning. Along with clothing we have received all kinds of miscellaneous items that will serve quite well to complete the look of any set.
We really believe that Three Notch Theatre will be a memorable experience for all of those who step through our doors. We are very excited about finally having a home, and can see great potential for our future. Please come and join us, this is the only community theatre here in St. Mary's County. It is truly a community theatre, for the community, in the community and by the community. Thank you once again to all of those who have helped make this become a reality. We wouldn't be here without you!
Wendy Heidrich
Artistic Director
The Newtowne Players
Three Notch Theatre
News of Note
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Mission Statement
The mission of the Newtowne Players is to promote all aspects of the performing arts in Southern Maryland. We provide an outlet for people in the community who are interested in theatre in any capacity at all. Whether their interest is performing, directing, writing, make up, costume design or technical support, we provide opportunities for all through education, growth and hands on experience of working as a volunteer in any of these areas of theatre. In the process, we provide quality entertainment to the surrounding communities. Our goal is to foster, promote and increase the public knowledge and appreciation of the arts and cultural activities in St. Mary's County and Southern Maryland, and to make live theatre affordable and available to as many members of the surrounding communities as possible.
The Function of Newtowne Players is to:
- Bring an enjoyable theatrical experience to the community
- Develop opportunities for children and adults in the theatrical arts
- Express artistic, civic and educational interests in our community
- Provide quality entertainment through theatrical productions
- Showcase local talent
- Develop youth programs in theatre with the local schools via workshops and internships