Colchester Theatre Company
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The Colchester Theatre Company is a High School Theatre troupe in Colchester, Vermont, founded in 1977 by John Coon. It has been nominated for and presented with various awards for talent, effort, and commitment.
The Colchester Theatre Company has fallen into a tradition of performing four shows each year. The fall and spring performances are large, multiple-act plays - such as "Little Shop Of Horrors" in the fall of 2002 or "Dracula" in the spring of 2004. Both of the other two shows are one-act plays, the first performed for the Colchester Winter Carnival and the second for the One-Act Festival. The play performed for the Winter Carnival is usually lighter fare, such as a musical revue, while the One-Act Festival is often (though not strictly always) heavier material, such as Sartre's No Exit in 2005.
When the Theatre Company does perform musicals, they are only in the Fall, since many of the school's vocalists (and the music educator) tend to get tied up with various music festivals during the Spring. This general scheduling does see exceptions. For instance, the theatre company announced finalized plans to mount the hit Broadway musical "Grease" in the Spring of 2007.
A basic concept applied in the structure of the Colchester Theatre Company is that of ensemble. Casting is based on the way that people interact as the characters in the audition and not on the director's preference of one person over another. There is no distinguishing line between actors and technicians. Those who do not get parts are encouraged but not required to perform tech jobs for the show being performed.
The Colchester Theatre Company also annually puts on a Haunted Forest on the night before Halloween (commonly known as cabbage night), sponsored by the Colchester Police department - a no-charge event that has, according to the police department, greatly reduced the number of typical cabbage night crimes.
As of 2001, the Colchester Theatre Company has hosted an annual non-competitive One-Act Festival called the Champlain Theatre Experience, under the joint guidance of John Coon of Colchester High School and Rod Ross of Winooski High School.
