It’s billed as big city entertainment at small town prices. Anyone who has been to see the Mill Town Players at the Historic Pelzer Auditorium would surely agree.
Launched on July 1, 2014 by area educator and artist Will Ragland, Mill Town Players has been recognized for artistic achievement and its positive impact on the community.
Mill Town Players has a unique mission to offer quality and affordable theater – things that don’t often go together, according to Ragland, MTP’s full-time executive artistic director.
“I wanted to make live shows a regular part of life for more people,” said Ragland, an Anderson County native who attended Wren schools. “To do that, it had to be affordable and our shows are cheaper than going to a movie.”
As for quality, Mill Town Players achieves that, too.
In 2016, the SC Theatre Association recognized Mill Town Players with its prestigious Founders Award. It also won top honors in the state community theater festival in 2014, 2016 and 2018.
In 2019, MTP won the Southeastern Theatre Conference Community Theatre Festival and went on to compete at AACTFest 2019 in Gettysburg, PA, marking the first time since 1985 that a team from South Carolina had competed at nationals. MTP won Best Costumes and recognition for Ensemble Performance and Acting.
Mill Town Players also brought new life to an historic Anderson County structure that celebrated its 100th anniversary in September 2020.
Like much of the town, Pelzer Auditorium was built by the nearby textile mill in the 1920s to accompany the now-closed Pelzer schools. By the 1970s, the building was no longer regularly used and fell into disrepair. Anderson School District 1 refurbished the building several years later, with theater groups and performers using it sporadically.
Mill Town Players offers year-round shows in the historic building with 656 available seats, and many of the shows selling out. Season attendance has grown to more 32,000, with patrons coming from more than 52 municipalities across South Carolina, and many areas of Georgia and North Carolina, Ragland says.
Due to COVID-19, Mill Town Players has suspended its 2020 season, with a scheduled return in May 2021. For the 2021 show schedule, visit MillTownPlayers.org.
