FOOTLIGHT PLAYERS A Century of Charleston Theater Tradition

The history of theater in Charleston, South Carolina from Colonial to modern times featuring Charleston's oldest theater company, Footlight Players. Founded on the Little Theater tradition of community volunteers, Footlight Players has for nearly a century presented a variety of musicals, from traditional theater classics to current works, curated for community taste and drawing on local talent. Its home is an antebellum cotton warehouse converted to a modern theater facility which has become a Charleston historical landmark.

Footlight Players Charleston utilizes historic documentation, images, and interviews to chronicle the historical narrative of theater in one of America's oldest cities. The Footlight Players organization plays a central role in the narrative, beginning early in the 20th century. From their first home in the iconic Dock Street Theatre, the first structure in America built exclusively to be used for theatrical performances, the company moved to the Queen Street Playhouse, their current home.