I was talking with a couple of friends lately and both said to me: “I do not think we realize how lucky we are to have the Cumberland County Playhouse here in our town.”
I personally agree. I mean, I grew up with the Playhouse. My first show from CCP was at the old Cumberland Elementary School (currently known as the Justice Center) auditorium. I was 5 years old when Paul Crabtree and company brought their many talents to the Plateau, and CCP just celebrated its 60th anniversary.
The show was “Pinocchio” and I was hooked from that day forward on live theater.
I can still remember the characters in the aisle, the music, and the entire story I heard and/or read a million times coming to life right before my young eyes.
But maybe we take CCP for granted?
I forgot that people drive from all over the area to see shows at CCP. Buses come into town for matinees regularly, and churches, civic, students, family and friend groups carpool from all over the region to see a production. You can see the breadth of the spectators’ travels by viewing the license plates in the parking lot!
I was at a seminar in Chattanooga recently and all of us participants were asked to say where we live. When I said “Crossville,” a woman immediately spoke out and said “I am from Georgia, and we drive up there all the time to see plays. You are so lucky to live that close to a regional theater.”
She isn’t wrong.
Over the years, I have seen hundreds of CCP performances: dramas, comedies, musicals. I have never seen a bad production. Seriously, I may have liked some more than others, but the sets, the sound, the vocal performances, the acting, the music, the costumes, the lighting, and the dancing are unbelievable.
I have watched too many Broadway shows to count, including “Lion King,” and can honestly say that the CCP’s resident and volunteer actors can hold their own in a show. I have never left there thinking it was a subpar performance. Never.
I cannot even say that about at least one show I saw on Broadway.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. Michael and I, along with a slew of friends, went to see “Lion King, Jr.”
This production is mind blowing! I walked away in awe, primarily because it was 100% students! (Thus, the junior part of the title).
We were sitting in the audience watching the musical when I saw a face I recognized. It was Ollie Fugere, one of my seventh-grade TAD students at Martin Elementary.
She was playing the role of Nala (as does Eden Ordway, who I did not see but was told is also phenomenal), and I was stunned by her performance! She sang, danced, and acted as if she were 15 years older and with a lot more experience under her belt.
Did I mention she is a seventh-grader?
Ollie is, for a point of reference, the granddaughter of Sally Yap of Crossville who started China One restaurant here.
Ollie sits near the front in class, and I always tease her about looking like an actress I have watched from a television series. I even gave her the actress’s show name as her nickname, and that is what I call her at school. Not once did Ollie tell me she, too, is a Triple Threat.
But she is not the only one. The role of Scar was played by Vesper McNellis, who knocked her performance out of the park with her scary-sounding voice and her feline-like movements.
Piper Hamby was a standout in her role as Timon, eliciting both cheers and laughter with her comedic comments, while Ashlyn Hale and the other dancers are fabulous even among their many costume changes.
The entire cast is chock full of home school, elementary, and high school students who can act, sing, dance — or all three!
They were so terrific that a standing ovation ensued at the end of the performance.
We saw the “Jungle” cast. The student productions are double cast so that students do not have to do every one of the shows. I am told the “Savannah Cast” is also extraordinary.
Hats off to Cumberland County Playhouse Producing Director Bryce McDonald and his wonderful staff for keeping CCP a destination theater!
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Register now for the Cumberland County Imagination Library” Run to Read 5K and Storybook Character Walk” Saturday, April 4, at Cumberland Mountain State Park beginning at 8 a.m.!
Dress up as your favorite storybook character and run, walk or push a stroller! Registration fee provides free books to local children.
Registration forms are available at the Art Circle Public Library in Crossville.
Attention golfers … don’t miss CAC’s 2026 Charity Golf Tournament, Saturday, April 25, at Bear Trace Golf Course. Entry fee is $100 per player or $350 for a team of four.
This four-person scramble features CAC’s popular chicken kabob lunch and numerous door prizes. Plus, three additional hole-in-one prizes. For information, contact Julie Kraus 931-397-6667.
All proceeds go to continued improvements and maintenance of the Christian Academy of the Cumberland’s Campuses.
Registration is at 8 a.m. with a shotgun start at 9 at Bear Trace Golf Course.
Cumberland County students, teachers, staff and administrators will return to school on Monday morning after a spring break that went from a tornado watch earlier in the week to a winter weather advisory with light snow accumulations!
What do they say? If you don’t like the weather, hang on, it will change quickly!