Marquee

History

Ritz Theater

Ritz Restoration

Membership

Photo Gallery

Links

Email Us

Tickets

Parke Players, Inc
P.O. Box 254
Rockville, IN 47872
765-569-PLAY

Parke Players History 1971 - 2008

        Since 1957, Parke County Indiana has invited guests from all over the world  to come and celebrate the thirty two covered bridges that remained of the original fifty two that had spanned the creeks and streams of this rural Indiana county.    The first Covered Covered Bridge Festival was held on October 18 through the 20th of 1957 and offered a simple square dance at the 4-H fairgrounds for the Saturday night entertainment.   In 1958 the festival was expanded to the current two weekend format.   That year,  a turn of the century fashion show "The Belles Of The Bridges"  was presented on both Saturday nights on a simple stage under the east end of the 20 x 80 foot tent.   As the festival  grew at an astonishing rate, the need for more sophisticated entertainment became apparent.   One of the bridge festival's founders began writing and directing the Saturday evening events that included all manner of pageantry, marching bands, theatrical skits and even torch light parades.    All presented at the Rockville Elementary School gymnasium,  the only functioning indoor stage in town.   The principal problem with these presentations was that each one had to outdo the last and, alas,  the torch light parade to "Elect Wm. Henry Harrison!"  pretty much pushed all of the limits not to mention attracting the attention of the local fire marshal.   The shows were also taxing for the writer- director since she was also spearheading the legion of volunteers that made the thriving Covered Covered Bridge Festival possible.  

        In 1969, the local cinema came up for sale.  The theater was built in 1912 as The New Rockville Opera House and was being offered for sale by its third owners, the Carey Alexander Company.  Carey Alexander was a small chain of cinemas located in the Midwest.    In the early thirties, the company changed the name to the Ritz, a fashionable name for cinemas during that era .   You can read much more about the history of the Ritz Theater on this website by pushing the Ritz Theater button to the left.   Small town theaters were closing at an alarming rate in the late sixties and the Ritz was just one of a dozen in the Carey Alexander  chain to close that year.   Executive members of  the Rockville Chamber of Commerce had discussed the feasibility of restoring the stage at the Ritz should a deal for its purchase be arranged.   The cinema chain had built a permanent screen just behind the proscenium arch and it turned out that this was the extent of the disabling of the classic stage that had seen so much activity during the first fifteen or twenty years of the theater's life.   A couple of Chamber of Commerce members had approached the producers of the festival entertainment about moving their productions to the theater should the purchase become a reality.   There was a general agreement that everyone would benefit if the Chamber would purchase the Ritz and continue to operate the cinema throughout the year and that the entertainment for the festivals be produced there as well.   

        The Chamber of Commerce was successful in purchasing the half century old landmark in 1969 and that year's Covered Covered Bridge Festival Saturday night entertainment," A Bandwagon Tour Of Parke County" was presented to an appreciative crowd of almost five hundred on each of the Saturday nights.  Standing Room Only.  The 1970 Covered Covered Bridge Festival entertainment was a sequel to the 1969 show and was also titled A Bandwagon Tour Of Parke County .   In April of 1971, the final of several meetings to discuss the formation of a civic theater in Parke County that could entertain the visitors for the festival was held.  The meeting was concluded with a unanimous vote to proceed.  A contest was promptly sponsored by the local press to come up with a name for the new organization and the rest is Parke Players history.   The first Parke Players production was "Ten Nights In A Barroom", an authentic 1890's temperance play presented during the 1971 Covered Covered Bridge Festival.   It had been decided that all Covered Bridge Festival productions would be a Victorian melodrama to keep in step with the Covered Bridge Festival's turn of the century theme.   

      In the early 1960's, a second festival celebrating Parke County's bountiful maple syrup production had been established.  The annual Parke County Maple Fair is  held annually over the last weekend in February and the first weekend in March.  While remaining a significantly smaller event, by 1971 the Maple Fair was growing in popularity.   The overnight visitors to the Maple Fair had little (almost no) choice for evening entertainment.   There were small presentations of local music acts on a stage located in the middle of the building where the Maple Fair was held but only during the 8AM to 6PM hours that the fair was open.   There was nothing for the guests to do during the evening hours.   It was decided that there should be an Annual Maple Fair production also to be produced at the Ritz Theater.  After some research, it was determined that these productions be more in the popular contemporary theatrical genre with the focus being on light comedies.    The first Maple Fair production was Woody Allen's smash hit "Don't Drink The Water" presented in February of 1972.

        In 1973, Parke Players was invited to produce authentic "Tent Shows" at Billie Creek Village during Steam Harvest Days, an annual two day celebration of steam powered agricultural equipment.  Billie Creek Village is a turn of the century living museum located one mile east of Rockville.      The Village was created and operated by the same body that oversaw the Covered Covered Bridge Festival so when the need for additional entertainment to spice up the summer celebration came up, Parke Players was asked to fill the bill.   We performed two or three one act Victorian melodramas in sequence throughout the day under a 15 x 30 tent with a small stage and scenery such as that used by the original turn of the century traveling shows.   A ticket would cost you fifty cents and the public was enthusiastic in their attendance.  We learned a great deal about the lives of the original troupers we sought to emulate:  It was often beastly hot under the tent,  the actors were at the mercy of any noise emanating from whatever was outside the tent and that things could be less than pleasant when it rained.  The least of the rainy day drawbacks were the open air dressing areas and the worst was that the audience was likely to grow in order to get in out of the rain and no one could hear anything with the rain beating on the canvas.  The actors were lucky to hear one another during even a modest rain.  

        All but two of the titles presented during the seven tent show seasons were written and directed by Juliet Snowden,  The author who had written and directed the early Saturday evening shows for the Covered Covered Bridge Festival prior to the formation of Parke Players. 

       In 1998, Parke Players purchased the Ritz Theater and have set forth on a renovation campaign that has restored the fine old theater and updated the restroom and concession areas as well as the production facility itself. We retained the lease agreement with the less than enthusiastic cinema exhibitor until 2004 when the exhibition firm came to the conclusion that the cinema business wasn't so much fun after all.   A second round of depression for small town exhibitors combined with rising energy costs cut into the profits to such an extent, a small business could not make it worthwhile.   Parke Players being a non profit organization, we need only break even and generate a modest income to help with the maintenance of the theater.   We took over the operation of the cinema and have made a decent go of it.  When in Parke County, don't miss the opportunity to see a first run film at our vintage theater over any of the forty seven weekends a year that we are operating the Ritz Theater