The theatrical group Watts Hall Community Players has received two grants to upgrade the lighting system in the 103-year-old theater in Watts Hall on Main Street in Thomaston.

Thanks to generous grants from the Maine Theater Fund of the Maine Community Foundation and the Davis Family Foundation, work has begun to replace lighting equipment that is 50 years old with new, efficient digital lighting. The balance of the funding needed for the project will come from proceeds from the Theater group’s productions.

2018 marks the third year of renewed interest in community in theater in Thomaston.

Watts Hall Community Players, which had its heyday in the 1990s, brought back The Music Man In 2016 and in 2017 Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat involved as many as 100 community members in live theater. 

In April, the theater group will present  Etty’s Song, based on the letters and diaries of a Dutch woman, Ett?y Hillesum, during the period 1941-1943 when Holland was occupied by the Nazis. Watch for more information on this production later this month  

This summer, a rollicking musical by none other than Gilbert and Sullivan, The Pirates of Penzance, will bring to the stage a band of swashbuckling pirates during Victorian England who, orphans all, simply yearn for domesticity. The mission of Watts Hall Community Players is to produce live theater and involve community members of diverse ages at all levels of experience.