CROSSVILLE — It all started with a little play on the stage of Crossville’s Junior High. Now that the Cumberland County Playhouse is celebrating its 50th anniversary, it regularly sees an average of 100,000 visitors a year.

“That adds up to about five million visits to this little town that was under 5,000 when the theater started,” Jim Crabtree, producing director, said.

Crabtree’s parents, Paul and Mary Crabtree, were visiting family in Crossville in 1963 when they were approached about producing a play. Paul was an actor — having made his Broadway debut as Will Parker in the original production of Oklahoma, and also had produced, directed and written for both Brodway and Hollywood. Mary was also an actress and a model.

“There were people who knew of his background in theater and asked him to share his talent with the schools in some way,” Crabtree said. “So he taught creative writing in the high school. They wanted him to do a project of some kind with the junior high. He decided to do his musical, ‘The Perils of Pinocchio,’ which he had premiered at the Royal Poinciana Playhouse in Palm Beach as a benefit for a school in Florida.”

The production got the town excited. They wanted to keep theater alive in the community, but at this time there were no professional theaters in Tennessee, let alone the rural areas.

“My father said, ‘Well, you’ll have to build a theater. That old junior high school isn’t even safe.’ The auditorium was built in the 30s. It was fine for Pinocchio, but in order to make a theater happen, everyone felt they needed a more comprehensive facility,” Crabtree said.

The Crabtrees rallied the community and together they sold stock at $10 a share, raising about $100,000 and getting a mortgage for another $100,000. The theater was built, which consisted of the auditorium area in the current theater. Further expansions to the building, such as the lobby, were added in 1993 for their silver anniversary.

“The community and the board have made the playhouse happen, through the original purchase of stock in the original profit-making company,” Crabtre said. “When the National Endowment for the Arts and the Tennessee Arts Commission came along a few years later, it became clear that a theater in this location could only qualify for grants if it was non-profit. So they converted to non-profit through the donation and re-purchase of the original stock. Everyone who didn’t want to donate their stock, their stock was repurchased, so nobody lost any money.”

The land was partially donated by the original developer of Holiday Hills Inc, which developed the nearby lake and home sites surrounding it. The city and the county have been big supporters of the theater as well, and have helped sustain them over the last 50 years.

Currently, ticket sales make up about 70 percent of their income, while donors provide 30 percent. In the past, it has been as high as 80-85 percent ticket sales-supported, however relying more on donors is actually better for the playhouse. FULL STORY HERE