Lucille Ball Little Theatre of Jamestown is a community theatre company located in

Jamestown, New York Jamestown is a city in southern Chautauqua County, in the U.S. state of New York. The population was 28,712 at the 2020 census. Situated between Lake Erie to the north and the Allegheny National Forest to the south, Jamestown is the largest pop ...

. It evolved from the Jamestown Players Club and was established as a non-profit corporation in 1936 with the name Little Theatre of Jamestown. The company has its own theatre on East Second St. in Jamestown which it purchased in 1968. Both the company and its theatre were renamed the Lucille Ball Little Theatre of Jamestown in 1991 to honor the actress

Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedienne and producer. She was nominated for 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning five times, and was the recipient of several other accolades, such as the Golden ...

, Jamestown's most famous resident. Ball got her acting start with the company's precursor The Players Club and returned in 1945 to perform in a series of skits with the company in

Chautauqua Chautauqua ( ) was an adult education and social movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua bro ...

's Smith-Wilkes Hall. Throughout her life, she would send the company cash donations as well as costumes from her television and film career. One of her donations, a costume from the film ''

Gone With the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * Gone with the Wind (novel), ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * Gone with the Wind (film), ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Win ...

'' is still used by the company.Plyler, Robert W. (March 21, 2009)
"Lucille Ball Little Theater and Marshall Dahlin"
''

Evening Observer The ''Observer'' is a newspaper for the residents of Northern Chautauqua County, NY and northwestern Cattaraugus County, NY, with offices located in Dunkirk, NY. Formerly known as the ''Evening Observer'', and before then, the ''Dunkirk Evening ...

Company theatre

Since 1969, the company's home has been located at 18 East Second St. in Jamestown. The building began its life in 1881 as Allen's Opera House. Its proprietor, Abner E. Allen, sold the theatre to Charles Samuels in 1898 when it became known as Samuels Opera House. It was then acquired by the MA Shea Corporation in 1919 and in 1925 was extensively and elegantly refurbished in a Spanish style, which can still be seen in its facade. The Shea Theatre was initially used for

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

performances but with the decline of the genre it was turned into a cinema. By the early 1960s the cinema had closed and the building was derelict. It was purchased in 1968 by the Little Theatre of Jamestown, and new theatre was built inside the shell of the old one. The renovated theatre was opened in 1969. Officially renamed the Lucille Ball Little Theatre in 1991, it has a seating capacity of 402, a full stage, and a small lobby. Chautauqua County Visitors Bureau
Lucille Ball Little Theatre of Jamestown

References

External links

* Buildings and structures in Chautauqua County, New York Theatres in New York (state) Jamestown, New York Lucille Ball Theatre companies in New York (state) {{US-theat-stub

Company theatre

See also

References

External links