Mill Town Players, Market Theatre Receive SC Cares Funds

Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer

At least two Anderson County theater groups are breathing a little easier after receiving confirmation that South Carolina Cares Act funding is on the way.

The Mill Town Players and The Market Theatre are among those who will each receive $49,788.09 from the fund to help offset some of the losses due to their seasons being wiped out by the pandemic. 

“It could not have come at a better time,” said Will Ragland, founder and executive artistic director of the Mill Town Players. “Thank goodness they picked us, we literally ran out of money today.”

After being closed more than nine months, theater companies are struggling to survive, and the funds will allow some to hold on until the COVID-19 situation is alleviated. 

“As it has gone on longer than anyone could image, we have done our best to be stewards of the resources we had, but it has been difficult,” said Noah Taylor, one of the founders and the executive artist director for The Market Theatre Company. Taylor joked theater companies put the “non” in non-profit. 

Both companies lost entire seasons of performances as a result of the virus, and both share the pain of theater communities in the Upstate and nation/world. 

“I applaud the legislature for extending this vital lifeline to our local arts groups,” said Paul Hyde, who has been a long-time performer and arts journalist in the Upstate. “These arts organizations contribute so much to the Upstate’s quality of life, entertaining and challenging us - enriching our lives.” 

Hyde called 2020 the most challenging in history for many arts groups.  

“As art supporters we have keenly felt the absence of arts in our lives this year,” Hyde said. “When we return to the future sometime in the future, I believe we will do so with more gratitude than ever before.”  

The Mill Town Players, whose stage has been dark since March, currently plan to turn on the floodlights in May for the annual “Pelzer Gospel Homecoming,” with precautions in place to make it safe for patrons, Ragland said. If all goes well, the group will offer “Steel Magnolias” beginning in June. 

“For those of us who love live events, there’s been such an absence, a hole, and you don’t realize how you miss it,” Ragland said. “We take it for granted how lucky, blessed we are to create and experience local culture and arts."

The Market Theatre has sought alternative productions during the year which do not include a conventional audience. In October, a podcast/performance “Ghost Walk” a self-distanced and self-paced tour of downtown Anderson was followed in December by the downtown “Storefront Storybook” read-walk-listen event. 

Taylor said he hopes to continue such alternative productions in the months ahead, as well as contemplating a potential drive-in show this year. 

“I have been reading and taking in so much content - plays, online performances - and my inspiration tank is full,” said Taylor. “I looking to get back to it.”

Both Ragland and Taylor said they have missed the community and camaraderie of the cast and crew.

"I miss the people, the social interaction with the cast, standing the back of the auditorium and watching a room full of people respond to something.”

A full list of those receive SC Cares Act funds will be released Thursday.

Video interviews from earlier in 2020 about the impact of the virus on local arts are here and here.