HISTORY OF BELMONT COMMUNITY PLAYERS

 
Belmont Community Players is a Belmont city-sponsored organization providing great community theater in the form of old-fashioned melodrama and olios throughout the month of February, and starting with 2003 - in October and November. Proceeds are used to improve Barrett Community Center and assist other recreation activities.
 
In early 1974, the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) church on Ralston Avenue in Belmont held a church sponsored community stage production as a fund raising event. That first year, the production was a variety show, and it was quite successful and well received. However, the following year church organizers decided to change the venue to that of melodrama, and for the next fourteen years, IHM provided annual authentic melodrama productions to the Belmont community. By 1988, the production requirements and audience sizes had grown to the point that it was no longer a feasible church undertaking. With that in mind, several Belmont citizens who were interested in seeing the continuation of melodrama productions that had grown into a Belmont tradition, organized the Belmont Community Players as a nonprofit unincorporated association under the sponsorship of the Belmont Parks and Recreation Department.
 
Since 1988, the Belmont Community Players have provided authentic melodramas each February at the Barrett Community Center in Belmont. Each year audience attendance has continued to increase, and the production has become a major undertaking that requires the participation of nearly 100 volunteers who contribute through activities such as acting, dancing, singing, directing, painting, stage crew, sewing costumes, advertising, lighting, tickets and other support activities. The group has a roster of several hundred citizens throughout the Bay Area, but an emphasis is placed on the involvement of Belmont residents. The troupe encourages local authors and the use of original scripts whenever possible, and has developed a solid tradition of providing good, fun, family melodrama entertainment to the Belmont community.