Flat Rock Playhouse
Flat Rock Playhouse producing artistic director Vincent Marini
Founded in 1952 and designated the State Theatre of North Carolina in 1961, historic Flat Rock Playhouse entertains 100,000 people annually with an innovative mix of Broadway musicals, comedies, dramas and theater for young audiences.
The playhouse grew out of a traveling performance group called the Vagabond Players, formed in 1937 by Robroy Farquhar. The group performed two seasons of well-attended summer plays in Highland Lake, N.C., in 1940 and 1941, and returned after World War II to occupy a playhouse in nearby Lake Summit.
By 1952, the popular troupe addressed their need for more room by buying property in Flat Rock and performing under a “big top” tent, establishing the group’s official residence in N.C. Poet Carl Sandburg lived across the street, and in 1962 writer Norman Corwin’s The World of Carl Sandburg premiered on the Flat Rock stage. The show later toured with Bette Davis and ultimately moved to Broadway. Today, the tent is a theater and Sandburg’s home remains across the street as a National Historic Site.
The playhouse staged its first production of Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel in 1970, and two years later premiered Opal by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright John Patrick. In 1987, it staged its first large-scale musical, 1776, and during the 1990s it premiered Lucky Guy, Gilligan’s Island: The Musical, Smoke & Mirrors and When Pigs Fly. In 2003, it broke all previous box office records with Singin’ in the Rain, and it was the first professional/regional company to stage Disney’s Beauty and the Beast in 2004.
“Our goal as the State Theatre of North Carolina is to have broad audience appeal as well as to develop product that we’re able to export to the rest of the country,” says producing artistic director Vincent Marini. “So we have an interest in developing work that is going to have a life outside of the playhouse and is going to be relevant both regionally and nationally.”
Flat Rock Playhouse also has an extensive education program. A youth education building inaugurated in 2008 features a full dance studio, visual arts studios and computer editing labs. It features track classes giving kids different theatrical learning experiences as they make their way from pre-K though 12th grade; semester-long and year-long classes ranging from the visual arts to musicals; a youth theater company that produces two shows on the main stage each year and that includes a Glee-style choir as well as rock ‘n‘ roll and blues bands; and an adult education program ranging from classes in video editing and costume design to a book club for plays and musicals featuring guest artists and field trips to see the performances on stage.
One of the state’s most venerable performing arts institutions, Flat Rock Playhouse’s programs and innovative spirit make it not only worth visiting but also revisiting, Marini says.
“The playhouse has been around for a long time, and there’s a lot of people in this area who absolutely love it,” he points out, “but there are also a lot of people around the state who haven’t been here in quite a while and have an impression of it from five or 10 years ago. I hope those people will give us a chance again.”