DCP Theatre History
As we enter our 72st season of quality, affordable theatrical events we remember our humble beginnings.
DCP theatre, formally known as Dutch Country Players Theatre was founded in 1952 by Ben and Mickie Beltz, Ed and Pearl Herb, Otto and Kay Koch, Al and Mina Hasson, Harold and Sue Norman, Rita Pearce, Harry and Marge Schaffer, Gwen Schaffer, Erik Van Anglen and Peg West.
The first Dutch Country Playhouse was a wooden auction house rented for $1 yearly, from Helmut and Frances Bultmann, former owners of the adjacent Ridge Road Hotel. A price that is equivalent to just $10.22 in 2021. The stage was one foot high and covered with a slanted roof, "so all six actors were blocked to the front of the stage".
A fire started by a gas space heater destroyed the auction house in March 1956. After which, the present cement-block playhouse was built on the auction house site by the Players and the Bultmanns, opening in late 1956 with the murder mystery "Louisa." DCP acquired the Ridge Road Hotel and the Bultmanns' share of the 220-seat playhouse in 1973, selling the hotel the next year.
