Bremerton Community Theatre…

…started life as part of a drama program intended to put a little meaning into the lives of the crowds of war-workers drawn to the Navy Yard during the 1940s. Bremerton's population had exploded from 15,000 in 1939 to an estimated 75,000 by 1943. It was a small town with a lot of newcomers living in make-shift quarters. Many became homesick, or bored, and started to wander back home.

The federal government allotted money to cities like Bremerton to pay for recreation programs — anything to keep the war workers busy, entertained, and on the job. Some of that money was allocated to the City Park and Recreation Department for an amateur drama program, and a drama director was hired. Thus begins…

A BRIEF HISTORY

by Robert Montgomery

It seems only yesterday that we were able to open this building (our current facility – ed.), with a real stage, rigging, dressing rooms, and…it's a real theater!

On May 6, 1976 our new theater finally opened with the play The Patriots. It was our 124th play since Community Theatre began operating in 1944. But we had finally moved from improvised facilities in a little wooden building at 12th & Broadway, to a new building actually designed to be a theater.

We had operated for 30 years in a little theater seating 72 people, with a stage measuring only 16-foot square. Now here we were with a new building, 192 theater seats for our audience, and a 25' deep stage with a fancy stage rigging system.

The previous weeks had been a nightmare of activity for theater members. Construction had been going on since July of the previous year. We even had thieves steal building material so that the building stood with 60' of wall missing until new components could be shipped from Texas. Our own theater members completed the theater equipment installation. The last 2 weeks saw a beehive of activity as a crew of PSNS shipfitters, welders, and mechanics joined theater members in installing the rigging system from the Seattle Orpheum, while another group was busy bolting seats from Seattle's Music Hall to the new floor. In the meantime other crews were building new scenery for The Patriots, while rehearsals were going on in the old theater and any other place we could find to accommodate us. Some of our work went on into the early morning hours.

Our production of The Patriots by Sidney Kingsley was our contribution to the bicentennial – the United States' 200th birthday. The interior of the theater was barely completed when the audience arrived. Wall insulation hung from the rafters, we had a bare concrete floor, and we had improvised our light control panel from our old theater. But it was the start of the best community theater in the west.

Our latest addition to BCT — the Robert B. Stewart Performance Hall — is a black box theatre. It opened in 2010 and is named for one of BCT’s most ardent supporters, Robert B. Stewart who generously gifted Bremerton Community Theatre with $250K to build this addition. Mr. Stewart’s dedication to BCT goes back many years as he was instrumental in assisting BCT through all the permits and approvals needed to build our current facility. Mr. Stewart has not only been an avid BCT patron and supporter, but has even acted on our stage, in See How They Run and The Girls of 509.