History

In September of 1996 the Parks and Recreation Department established The “Star Bright Players” Children’s Theatre group. The “Star Bright Players” consists of three components:  large scale musical productions, presenting outside theatre companies, workshops and classes. 

Twice a year the Parks and Recreation Department holds open auditions for children in the Williamson County community between the ages of 8 and 15 for the musical productions. We typically have between 100 and 150 children audition for each production and have had casts as small as 40 and as large as 101. These large scale musicals call for auditions to be held, the cast to be announced, 7 weeks of rehearsals and culminates with four performances. And in order to produce such an extravaganza, the Parks and Recreation Department is fortunate enough to have an outstanding team behind the scenes: Mrs. Leslie Milstead (director); Ms. Connie Fuller (music director); Mrs. Erin Laming (choreographer/stage manager); Katy Sanders (assistant to the director I); Josh Hollandsworth (assistant to the director II); Elise Horecka (assistant choreographer); Blake Dicus (sound engineer);
and a team of musicians, stage crew and parent volunteers.

We are also pleased to tell you that the “Star Bright Players” theatre program received the Four Star Award from the Tennessee Recreation and Parks Association in 1997 and again in 2007. This award is given to the most outstanding Arts and Humanities Program in the state of Tennessee.  The Star Bright Players also won a GNRC (Greater Nashville Regional Council) Award for Best Parks and Recreation Program in the mid-state region in 2007.

Star Bright Productions to date:
“You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown,” “Cinderella,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Peter Pan,” “Oklahoma,” “Oliver,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Grease,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Magic Nights,” “Annie,” “Wizard of Oz,” “Meet Me in St. Louis," "Once Upon A Mattress", "Snoopy", "Oklahoma", "Beauty and the Beast", “Annie Get Your Gun”, “The Music Man”, “Peter Pan”, “The Boyfriend”, “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and “My Fair Lady”.

Another component of the children’s theatre program is to welcome other touring children’s theatre groups. One such group is the Missoula Children’s Theatre group from Missoula, Montana. They come into town with all of the necessities; set, props, costumes, make-up, script and score. They hold auditions on a Monday and cast between 50 and 60 local children. They rehearse everything in four and a half days and hold two performances on Saturday. Missoula offers its program to children ages 5 to 18, thus expanding the age realm to provide such an amazing “arts” opportunity to more children in the Williamson County Community.