In celebration of Flat Rock Playhouse's 2019 Homecoming season, the theater has announced the much-anticipated revival, elevation and reveal of the Backstage Ball, which serves as the Playhouse's signature fundraiser this year.

The event, scheduled for the evening of August 12th, celebrates the dazzling craft of live professional theater and the arts philanthropists who make it all possible.

Origins

This event is a revival of an annual event that originated at the Playhouse in the 1980’s. At that time, most shows ran for a single week and ran back to back during the summer. There was always one show, however, that ran for two weeks which the crew and performers dubbed - appropriately - the “two-weeker.”

During the two-weeker, there was one full day off for the company and they used that day to diligently work on improvements to the property, with a special emphasis on the backstage. The cast and crew would reupholster furniture, paint dressing rooms, spruce up bathrooms, etc. Then, at the end of the day, the entire company would come together to celebrate all the work and improvements accomplished that day.

Thus began, the Backstage Ball.

The Ball was held in the scene shop - which certainly wasn't the scene shop the Playouse operates today! Back then, it was a shed roof covering a concrete pad where the shop now stands.  When it rained, the crew raced around picking up electric cords to power tools because rainwater would stream through the open shop. 

On the night of the Ball, the company would move all the tools, table saws, scenery and open up the space for dancing.  Jazz music would play and everyone was outfitted by the costume shop in tuxes, dinner jackets, smoking jackets, ascots, formal gowns or negligees. 

The crew also made life-sized silhouettes of a band out of plywood, painted them black, dressed them in bow ties and dinner jackets, and outfitted them with horns and other instruments from the props shop.

Anyone who was lucky enough to attend these early Backstage Balls remembers them as crazy fun and a secret celebration known only to the company.

In 2019, however, you can be in on the secret!

Tickets to the Backstage Ball are $150 per person, and tables of eight are available. Dress is creative black tie, and guests are invited to express themselves fashionably – or not. Anything goes at the Backstage Ball!

For more information and tickets, call the Playhouse Box Office at 828.693.0731 or follow this link.