~ Our History ~

The Glens Falls Operetta Club/Glens Falls Community Theatre

Paul E. Bergan and Edgar S. Pitkin founded the Club in 1935 with the belief that Glens Falls needed a community theatre outlet. They began production of the operetta H.M.S. Pinafore which was presented in March 1936. After the first two years, with productions being sponsored by the Glens Falls Hospital Guild, associate membership began, giving the Club the financial support to continue productions on its own. Today, our Seasons Subscribers provide this important financial base.

From the third year to the present the Club has continued to grow and offer creative innovations and means of expression to its active members and its audiences.  The Oratorio Group began during the third season, singing Handel’s Messiah; the Little Theatre Group presented its first production, French Without Tears, the fourth season.

In 1989 the new name Glens Falls Community Theatre came into being. We no longer produce oratorios, but we are a very active group.  The Glens Falls Community Theatre presents a diverse Season each year with a musical in the fall, a play in the spring, a murder mystery during February-March, a community service project, at times a children’s theatre production, and an annual joint presentation with the Chapman Historical Museum of A Walk Through the Past to Understand the Present in the Bay Street Cemetery.

We have begun an exciting new venture, etc (experimental theatre company). This bi-monthly play reading series takes place in the LARAC Gallery in downtown Glens Falls.  Added to this are the yearly workshop learning experiences for members, and annual scholarship awards given to talented seniors going into the areas of music, dramatics or preparing to teach in these fields.