By Sarah Stoesz
Fishers’ new community theatre group, the Nickel Plate Players, will have its debut production on July 19. They will be performing the jukebox musical, Beehive, at the Nickel Plate Amphitheatre stage.
Beehive features music from popular 60s artists such as Aretha Franklin, Janice Joplin, and the Supremes. There are 11 singers in the cast. Barbara Cullen choreographed the production. There will be seven musicians from the Fishers Music Works in the band accompanying the vocalists.
WISH-TV morning anchor, Lauren Lowrey is a member of the cast. Lowrey will be a soloist for the song “Proud Mary”.
The Executive Director of the Nickel Plate Players, Ashton Wolf, says that he came up with the idea to start a community theatre group in Fishers after he wrote his new musical, Ten Pin Alli.
“We live in Fishers and we looked all over Fishers and there was no place to do our show,” Wolf said.
Wolf is a member of the Fishers Arts Council and he proposed the idea to bring a community theatre group to Fishers. Since then, the Nickel Plate Players have received seven sponsors including the Town of Fishers Parks and Recreation, the Fishers Arts Council, and the Ambassador House. The Ambassador House has allowed the Nickel Plate Players to rehearse at its facility for free.
Beehive will be the first musical to be performed on the Nickel Plate Amphitheatre stage, said Jocelyn Kaspa Vare, President of the Fishers Art Council. “This was the first opportunity in a very long time that musical theatre would be performed in Fishers so I definitely wanted to audition and be a part of it in any way possible,” Vare said. “The community hasn’t had local theatre in many years so this is really exciting.”
The Nickel Plate Players hopes to have more performances after Beehive and continue to grow.
“We will now develop this into a full blown theatre company that will serve the people of Fishers in every possible way with plays and musicals,” Wolf said. “We hope to acquire a space to perform indoors in addition to doing shows at the Amphitheatre outdoors for free.”
The two hour long performance of Beehive will be at 7 p.m. on July 19 in the Nickel Plate Amphitheatre in downtown Fishers. Admission is free so no ticket purchases are necessary.
