CUSTER, S.D. (KELO) — For the past 78 years the Black Hills Playhouse down in Custer County has been entertaining people with a variety of plays each summer.
This historic theater offers a professional work environment for those hired each summer to grow in their fields.
What started as a civilian conservation camp back in the 1930’s, slowly turned into the legacy performing center for actors.
In 1946, founder Warren Lee and 13 other people started the Black Hills Playhouse. In 1956 the main mess hall was transformed into its own theater, seen here today.
“I have families who call when we open up our reservation lines and they’ve had the same tickets for 40 years, the same seats right. So about 85% of the people who come to the Black Hills Playhouse are from the Black Hills Region,” Black HIlls Playhouse Executive Director Linda Anderson said.
Each season begins as soon as the previous one ends. The fall is all about setting up which plays to do the next year, getting stage and production crews in and more.
Then it is audition season.
“Between January and the end of February I saw about 1,400 auditions for people, from actors. Hiring a company this summer, it’s 26 actors that we have and the rest of the company comes from all over,” Artistic Director Dan Workman said.
The company averages around 60 total actors, costume designers, and other crew members.
Nebraska native Kaden Hopkins is currently enrolled at the University of South Dakota, and appreciates the opportunity to work for such a historic theater.
“It’s truly a blessing to get to work here. I’ve always wanted to be an actor so being able to do it not only professionally, but with such wonderful and talented people and in such a well known space it’s really a blessing,” Actor Kaden Hopkins said.
The Black Hills Playhouse can seat up to 350 different individuals for each of their theatrical performances. And every summer they hold up to five different varieties of plays.
This season the crew is representing 23 states and 3 countries.
“You’re casting on strong talent. You want strong actors because they’re going to be playing multiple different types and so playing against some types sometimes, playing into types sometimes but having that strong background and having those strong actors makes it a lot easier to portray four different characters,” Workman said.
“We’re doing a Disney show now and next we’re doing The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas so it’s definitely like whoa back and forth. But it’s a very good blend. It’s nice to be able to reset a little and just go from one show to the next. It’s a smooth transition and it’s not as bumpy as it would seem,” Hopkins said.
The Playhouse has also evolved to include performances for those with sensory disabilities.
This included less lighting changes, lowered audio and more.
“We had a fullhouse of people who might not get to see the theater if you didn’t do a special performance and so accessibility is really important to us,” Anderson said.
Each show is unique in that everything you see on stage can only be seen during that show’s run, as each new show provides new materials and sets.
“We build all of our costumes on site, we build all of our sets here. So everything you see on that stage is original and the only place you’ll see it is here during that run of the show,” Anderson said.
After 78 years of entertaining tens of thousands of viewers, the Black Hills Playhouse continues to be the performance center of the Black Hills.
The Black Hills Playhouse runs its shows each summer, kicking off in early June and ending around the middle of August each year.
