Thibodaux Playhouse, the region’s community theater organization, will celebrate its 50th anniversary March 30 in the Ellender Memorial Library, starting at 7:30 p.m., as part of the Jubilee Festival of the Arts and Humanities.
The event will include a musical presentation, followed by a reception in the Archive Room, where an exhibit will be on display through June 2.
“We are pleased to be able to have this event take place at Nicholls and are especially grateful to Mr. Clifton Theriot, Ellender Memorial archivist, for his great job designing and displaying our 50 years of Playhouse history and memories,” Mel Baudoin, executive assistant to the board of directors of the Thibodaux Playhouse, said.
Theriot will unveil the Thibodaux Playhouse’s 50th anniversary exhibit, which will contain “information and programs from all of the plays that the Thibodaux Playhouse has done over 50 years,” Angela Hammerli, teacher of education, said. “So many people have told me that it is so moving to go into the Archive Room.”
Although Thibodaux Playhouse will not be doing a play at its 50th anniversary reception, there will be people singing songs from past Playhouse musicals.
Baudoin will sing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from “Carousel” and “Try to Remember” from “The Fantasticks”; Murray Dennis, former board member, will sing “There’s No Business like Show Business” from “Annie Get Your Gun”; Alison Arthurs, former board member, and Shane Carter, Playhouse member, will sing “Some Enchanted Evening” from “South Pacific”; and Donavon Bourgeois, Playhouse member, will sing “Hello Dolly” from the musical of the same name.
In addition to these performances, Martha Hodnett, president of the Thibodaux Playhouse, will present certificates of appreciation to the Playhouse charter members and past presidents. Also, Baudoin will sign copies of his new book entitled “That’s Entertainment,” which highlights the history of the Playhouse and the Nicholls Players.
Raymond Saadi, Thibodaux’s first radio announcer on KTIB in the early 60s, along with a small group of people, founded Thibodaux Playhouse in 1960.
“Thibodaux had a theater group in the early 1900s, but after the Second World War, it was never reorganized,” Baudoin said. “So for a period of maybe 20 to 30 years, there was no local theater group active.”
In 1960, Saadi and his group applied to the attorney general of Louisiana to become an incorporated group. Their first production, “Born Yesterday,” was performed at Nicholls.
Thibodaux Playhouse had no official home until 1967, when it moved into the Old Park Inn Restaurant located in downtown Thibodaux. Until then, they performed in local gymnasiums around the area. One of the gymnasiums that the Thibodaux Playhouse performed in was Shaver Gymnasium.
“Most of our actors at the Thibodaux Playhouse started off as young kids working their way through our children’s productions, and some are now with the Nicholls Players as well,” Hammerli said.
Today, the Thibodaux Playhouse is located on St. Mary Street and has been since 1983. It is the principal resident of the state-of-the-Art 200-seat Wetlands Acadian Cultural Center Theatre, a part of the Jean Lafitte National Historical Park & Preserve.
For more information on the Thibodaux Playhouse, visit the exhibit in the Ellender Memorial Library’s Archives Room. The exhibit will be open Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Tuesdays throughout the next two months. It is free and open to the public.