Athens Community Theater: How Town & Gown Players Works

The Athens Community Theater is the playhouse at 115 Grady Avenue in Athens, Georgia, set directly behind the Taylor-Grady House off Prince Avenue, and its resident company is Town & Gown Players, which has produced live theatre for the town continuously since 1953. Anyone can buy a ticket, audition or turn up for a set call there: the company's own pages say auditions are open to the public regardless of experience, and that its sets are built by volunteers.

That makes it a different kind of room from the county arts buildings in our guide to the stages and halls of Athens. Those rooms host whoever books them. This one has had the same company in residence for more than half a century, and that company runs nearly everything in it, from the box office to the paint buckets. What follows is what a newcomer needs to know, drawn from what Town & Gown publishes about itself and checked on the date at the foot of this story.

Who runs the Athens Community Theater?

Town & Gown Players, Inc. is the company in residence. Its history page says it has made its home in the Athens Community Theater since 1968, and in the next paragraph that it has performed there since 1969; either way, the company has spent well over fifty years in the same building. The playhouse itself was erected and given to the municipal government by Mr. and Mrs. W.A. Mathis, with Robert Nichols as its architect.

The building works harder than its size suggests. Town & Gown counts 50 to 60 performances a year, and the same playhouse doubles as the company's scene shop, costume shop and materials warehouse. A Key to the City, presented by Mayor Gwen O'Looney at the party for the company's thirtieth year in the playhouse, hangs in the lobby.

Why is the company called Town & Gown?

"Town and gown" is an old phrase for the two communities of a university town: the residents who live there year round, and the people of the university. Athens, home to the University of Georgia, fits the description well. Town & Gown's own pages do not say who chose the name in 1953 or what they meant by it, so this story will not invent a reason. What the pages do make plain is the practical version of the idea: auditions are open to everyone, and nobody needs a theatre degree to help build a set.

Mainstage or Second Stage: what is the difference?

Town & Gown runs two series in the same auditorium. The Mainstage carries most of the season and its largest productions. The Second Stage is a smaller, riskier strand, often built around new or local playwrights, or around titles the company considers too unfamiliar or too controversial for a general audience.

	Mainstage	Second Stage
Titles	Six per season	Four slots a year: Oct/Nov, Feb/Mar, Apr/May and Jun/Jul
Performances	Seven per title	One weekend: Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m.
Scale	The company's largest and longest-running shows	Small casts, some with two or three actors, on a small budget
How a show gets there	Play suggestions go to the vice president, who also handles Mainstage directing	A director submits a proposal with a full crew, an audition plan and the script, by June 1 or December 1
Room	The Athens Community Theater	The same space

A Second Stage show gets two weeks in the theatre after the previous Mainstage strike and plays the second weekend of that stay. Past entries listed by the company include Julius Caesar, Amadeus, Fool for Love, The Physicists, Art and Henry V, a reminder that a small-cast series can still take on heavy material. The director of a Second Stage show must also be a company member before the Board of Directors approves it.

What is on the Season 74 calendar?

Town & Gown bills its 2026 to 2027 programme as Season 74. It opened with The Phantom Tollbooth, Susan Nanus's stage version of Norton Juster's book, from October 2 to 11, 2026, followed by Eloise Kestrel: Artist, Oracle, Mystic, presented with The Wrong Station from October 23 to 25. The Bridges of Madison County, with a book by Marsha Norman and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, held auditions on October 5 and 6 and called for folk, opera and jazz singers; its performance dates had not been posted when this story was checked.

The rest of the year is already dated: Lucille Fletcher's thriller Night Watch from February 5 to 14, 2027; Larry Shue's comedy The Foreigner from April 9 to 18; Company, by George Furth and Stephen Sondheim, from June 11 to 20; and Romeo & Juliet from August 6 to 15. Only the last of those is in the public domain. Every other title has a rights holder behind it, and the licence a company needs for a season like this is part of the cost any company weighs before a title is announced.

How do you get a ticket and find your seat?

Tickets are sold online through ShowClix, the company's ticketing service, and Second Stage pre-sales go through the same system by credit card. On performance nights a volunteer box office manager also sells walk-up tickets at the theatre. Evening performances begin at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. The company publishes its prices on its ticketing page rather than in its visitor information, so this story does not quote them.

Finding the building is easier with a landmark. Along Prince Avenue, look for the Taylor-Grady House, an antebellum home with white columns and a historical marker, and turn onto Grady Avenue; the theatre sits immediately behind the house. From downtown, follow Dougherty Street and Prince Avenue west to Grady Avenue. Park in the company's lot beside the theatre or on Grady Avenue, never in the Taylor-Grady House lot, which serves that house's own events. The building and every seat in Row H are accessible.

Can anyone audition?

Yes. Town & Gown states that auditions are open to the public regardless of experience level. What you prepare depends on the show: it can be a prepared song, a monologue or a cold reading, and musicals add a singing component. Each production posts its own notice on the company's calendar and auditions page, with the details that apply to that show.

There is one condition after casting. Once a Mainstage show is cast, every member of its cast and crew must hold a current membership, which costs $20 per calendar year and has to be settled before opening; the company asks anyone facing financial hardship to talk to the director or the Membership Chair. Membership also decides who steers the theatre: only members can direct a show or elect the Board of Directors, which handles day-to-day operation and changes the bylaws.

What do volunteers actually do there?

Front of house takes a four-person team at every performance: a box office manager, an assistant who hands out will-call tickets and runs concessions, and two ushers who tidy the house, check tickets and help people to their seats. The company suggests ushering as the easiest first job, and front-of-house volunteers receive a free show ticket voucher.

Backstage, the weekends belong to the set. Outside performance weekends, Saturdays and Sundays are almost always given to construction, with calls typically running from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and from noon to 4 p.m. on Sundays, and the company says construction experience is appreciated but not at all required. Light and sound board operators run the cues through tech week and every performance without needing technical experience, and a wardrobe crew handles quick changes and small repairs. The same jobs exist in most small companies, and how backstage volunteering works at a community theatre walks through them one by one.

What grows next to the theatre?

Beside the building is Arcadia, a Memorial Heritage Garden planted by the friends and families of the company. It honours Marie E. Bruce, Thomas Tanner and Ben Teague, whose last collaboration was the December 2008 production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia. Members planted three trees at a ground-breaking ceremony on April 24, 2010, the three-phase design was completed within a year, and the garden was dedicated on April 30, 2011. The company describes it as a place of reflection and celebration for the whole Athens community, not only for its members.

Questions readers ask

Is the Athens Community Theater the same as Town & Gown Players?

Not quite. The Athens Community Theater is the building at 115 Grady Avenue; Town & Gown Players, Inc. is the company that has been resident there since the late 1960s and stages both its Mainstage and its Second Stage series in it.

Do I need experience to audition or volunteer?

No. Auditions are open to the public regardless of experience, set construction welcomes every skill level, and board operators are not expected to arrive with technical training. Mainstage cast and crew do need a $20 annual membership once a show is cast.

What time do shows start, and where do I park?

Evening performances start at 8 p.m. and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. Park in the theatre's own lot beside the building or on Grady Avenue, and leave the Taylor-Grady House lot free for that house's events.

About Town & Gown Players

Town & Gown Players, Inc. is a community theatre company in Athens, Georgia. It has produced live theatre continuously since 1953 and has been resident at the Athens Community Theater, 115 Grady Avenue, since the late 1960s. It presents six Mainstage titles a season with seven performances each, plus a four-slot Second Stage series for smaller and newer work, and gives 50 to 60 performances a year in all. Auditions are open to the public, sets are built by volunteers, and membership costs $20 per calendar year. The company's history and its answers to frequent questions are listed under Sources below.