Since 1955, the Portland Civic Players have been providing quality, live entertainment for the Portland community and surrounding areas.
The seating capacity of the theater at the time of purchase was 470. It is now 260. The former cry room with 8 seats is our light booth. The balcony with 30 seats was enclosed and the seats removed to provide space for our costume room. Over the years we have made many upgrades and fixes such as installing a pair of furnaces, partitioning off two dressing rooms and a makeup room in the basement, painting the interior of the theatre with fireproof paint, taking out 186 seats, and extending the stage a couple of times. The original seats have been replaced. We built on an addition to the side of the theatre to store flats, have redesigned the projection room, trying to make good use of the space we have.
One of our points of pride is our Summer Theatre Youth Program. This is a six-week performance arts program for students going into the 4th grade up to 12th and has been running in some form for over 45 years. Participants perform three full-length shows at the end of the program.
To this date, PCP has presented 86 plays, of these, 7 were written and directed by our local dentist and board member Dr. Roger Miller, 37 musicals, 8 Vaudeville shows, The Centennial Medicine Wagon, 11 variety shows, and multiple concerts. We have seen the use of our theater by the community increase in recent years as we reach out and partner with other organizations in the community such as the Portland Orchestral
Society and Friends of the Red Mill.
We are proud of the space we have made and the theater family we have built. We hope to be part of the Portland Community for many years to come!
