(828) 526-0173 | [email protected] | Copyright 2024 – All Rights Reserved.
A Valentine Dinner Theatre
Written By: April Getz, Highlands Cashiers Players | Issue: Winter 2025 | Photograph By: Susan Renfro
With its dinner theatre production set for February 13 and 14 at Highlands Performing Arts Center, Highlands Cashiers Players continues its tradition of comedy and drama that began 30 years ago.
Cathy Myers (HCP Vice President) and April Getz (HCP President)
The HCP 2025 Thirtieth Anniversary Season begins with a Valentine’s Dinner Theatre in the Martin Lipscomb Theater at the Highlands Performing Arts Center. Patrons will enjoy a delicious dinner buffet as they are entertained by short scenes and vignettes presented by duos of Highlands Cashiers Players actors and actresses. The event will be held February 13 and 14, with both performances at 7:30 P.M.
Thirtieth birthdays are a milestone in our culture. Turning 30 often symbolizes the transition into a more mature phase of life.
The same could be said of our local nonprofit community theater group, Highlands Cashiers Players, celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.
In July of 1995, Sara Mayer, Carol Lucas, Jerri Talley, Jean Morris and April Hershey each gave $100 to begin a community theater group in Highlands, and the Highlands Community Players was born. That first season they chose three plays – Steel Magnolias, Dearly Departed and A Thurber Carnival. In the summer of 2008, the Highlands Community Players joined forces with theater lovers in nearby Cashiers and transitioned to the Highlands Cashiers Players.
As happened with many organizations, Highlands Cashiers Players was struggling after the Pandemic, and considered closing the doors.
We are eternally grateful to Michael Lanzilotta, Ron Leslie, and Ricky Siegel for forming an emergency executive board to save the group. Even more impressive was the fact that they immediately went out to recruit new talent for the board of directors, even if that meant including fresh and sometimes different perspectives.
Highlands Cashiers Players is also on solid financial footing thanks to grants from community organizations such as Mountain Findings, Macon Arts Council and others as well as a 2024 season that was very well-attended and brought much new talent both on stage and backstage.
Support from the Highlands Performing Arts Center (PAC) —where we are one of four resident companies — and invaluable guidance from Mary Adair Trumbly, the recently-retired executive director at the PAC, have also been instrumental in our resurgence.
We eagerly anticipate continuing our residence at the PAC’s Martin Lipscomb Theater and working with the new executive director, Jeanne Piazza.
Season tickets for the season’s four mainstage plays (with the dinner theater priced separately) are currently available, along with options for individual tickets – visit highlandscashiersplayers.com or call (828) 526-9047.
