upelo Community Theatre was born from the dreams of sixteen hardy souls who met in the Spring of 1969 to form an organization to develop, promote, teach and stimulate interest in the dramatic arts. Jerry Napier was President of the new Theatre, with Sandy Ford serving as Vice President, Martha Hitch as Secretary, and Rowland Geddie as Treasurer. Other charter board members included Marilyn Bank, Martha Geddie, Bill Hitch, Dr. Jack Kellum, Linda Kinsey, Gus Liveakos, Margaret Anne Murphey, Jean Pettis, Charlotte Westbrook and Mary Alice McAlister. The other two founding Board members, Ruth Liveakos and Edith Thomas, are currently serving with Gene Murphey as emeritus members of the Board!
Since Laura, presented on October 2, 1969, at the Church Street School Auditorium under the direction of Ruth Liveakos, TCT has presented more than 230 different productions, seen by literally tens of thousands of theatre-goers. In 1973, the Theatre’s first annual Summer Youth Theatre production -- Lil’ Abner, directed by Ellen Short and presented in the Fellowship Hall of First United Methodist Church - was added to the three-play regular season. TCT’s first Dinner Theatre production, a collection of three one-act plays, debuted in the Ramada Inn in September, 1975.
For the first several years of its existence, TCT was a gypsy troupe, performing wherever there was available space, with performances presented at locations as diverse as the Church Street School Auditorium, the Milam School Auditorium, the Ramada Inn, the Civic Auditorium, the Lee County Courthouse, the old Fairgrounds and the Fellowship Hall at First United Methodist Church. In 1976, the Theatre purchased an old church building on East Main and, in slightly over a month, turned it into a theatre ready for its first production -- The Best Man, directed by Celia Fleishhacker. It was at the East Main building that TCT became a community fixture, presenting such well-remembered hits as Dracula, The Robber Bridegroom, Harvey, and Annie. While fond memories remain of the old playhouse, its limitations were legion, so when the opportunity arose to purchase the Lyric Theatre in 1984, the Theatre plunged ahead.
Starting with the premiere production of On Golden Pond, in May, 1985, more than 200,000 theatre-goers have seen one of the more than 200 TCT productions presented at the Lyric Theatre. Beginning with its first full season in the Lyric, TCT’s regular season expanded to four productions, including a full-scale musical presented each year during Gumtree weekend. In 1988, the Theatre added an additional play just after the first of the year as a special fund-raiser to help make it through the financially lean months of Spring. The first of these fund-raisers, BROADWAY!, with original musical arrangements, choreography and staging by Beverly Clement, Sarah Karrant and Jess Mark, added a whole new type of show to the Theatre’s repertoire -- the flash and dazzle of the song-and-dance revue. In 1994, the Theatre took advantage of the space available in the new North Annex to turn the winter show into a dinner theatre production, which has quickly become one of the most popular events in TCT’s calendar.
Since moving to the Lyric, the Theatre has offered special performances by professionals intended as educational experiences for young people. These have included Shakescenes on Tour by Jackson New Stage in 1992, Mark Twain’s America by Will Stutts in 1993, Love Letters by Anthony Herrera and Jessica Tandy, presented in the fall of 1993, and Mississippi Talkin’ II, presented in 1994, also by Jackson New Stage. Recent education guest artists have included Kuniko Yamamoto, Opal Palmer Adisa, Kevin Reese and Mary Hall Surface and in 2006 Metro Theater Company with their performance of Long Road to Freedom in partnership with St. Paul United Methodist Church.

     In 2001 and 2004 TCT won the "Best Production" at the Mississippi Theatre Association Festival and in 2004 its production of Bel Canto was one of the winners at the Southeastern Theatre Conference festival.

     While much has changed in the thirty-seven years since that first production, TCT's purpose has never wavered -- to develop, promote, teach, and stimulate interest in the dramatic arts.