Brown County Playhouse entrance in 1949 to its first play The Old Soak.
by Rogers on“ Shoppers’ Lane” in downtown Nashville. Rogers financed the initial cost of the building while Norvelle prepared the productions, hired a company of students, and constructed the set on the IU campus in Bloomington.
Norvelle wanted the Playhouse to“ attempt to do for theater in Brown County, what has been done in the field of painting.”
The first show at the Playhouse, The Old Soak, ran for five weekends in the summer of 1949 and tickets sold for just 90 cents each. It and a second show that summer were such a success that Novelle produced four plays in the summer of 1950.
In the beginning, the Playhouse was nothing more than an open barn for the stage and a large tent with open sides to cover 300 wooden seats. Water seeped through the walls of the dressing rooms under the stage and matinees were halted because the summer heat was so oppressive that actors and patrons were fainting.
There were no restrooms on site for the first 16 years. The program announced that“ Restrooms were across the street in the Nashville House,” but it failed to mention that the restaurant closed its doors long before the play concluded.
In the 1950s, the wooden seats were replaced by canvas lawn chairs and a tin roof took the place of the tent to prevent a fire from the potter’ s kiln that burned holes in the tent’ s canvas.
The Playhouse remained a quirky, outdoor theater. The summer heat was intolerable, vehicle noise distracted audiences during poignant scenes, and the
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Scene from 2022’ s A Christmas Carol.
July / August 2024 • Our Brown County 47