July 14, 2024
Get yer popcorn!
~ by Amy Huffman Oliver Photos provided by the Brown County Playhouse.
By my count, Dad hawked popcorn at the Brown County Playhouse for around 40 years.
My childhood memories of summer are of Dad donning his distinctive yellow cap and vest to sell popcorn for the Brown County Lions Club at the Playhouse.
Once he was wearing the hat and vest, he would transform from his every day, newspaper man, Clark-Kentkind-of-persona, into his alter ego— a carnival carny.
“ Hot popcorn! Get yer hot popcorn here! Cold Coca-Cola! Orville Redenbacher popcorn!” he would call out in a thundering cadence that could be heard a block away. Who can resist walking by the sound and smell of popcorn tumbling out of a salty, sizzling kettle without trying a box?
This summer, as the Playhouse celebrates 75 years as a center of performing arts in the village of Nashville, Indiana, it is time to reflect on its humble beginnings in 1949 and its successes through 2024. History of the Playhouse The Brown County Playhouse was unique from its start. It was not only the first summer stock theatre to open in Indiana after World War II, but it opened in a tiny village whose population in 1949 was only 493 residents and not yet the tourist destination it is today.
The history of the Playhouse was chronicled in a 1998 booklet called The First Fifty Years, written by R. Keith Michael, who was then the president of the board of directors and former producer for the Playhouse.
According to Michaels, Professor Lee Norvelle, director of the Indiana University Theatre Department, collaborated with local businessman A. Jack Rogers to build a nonprofit“ straw-hat” theater on land supplied
46 Our Brown County • July / August 2024