Gaslight Dinner Theatre Presents a Meal and a Show
culture, food, gaslight dinner theatre, theater,
There’s no need for Dickson County residents to drive to Nashville to enjoy a professional dinner theater experience. The Renaissance Center’s Gaslight Dinner Theatre offers “dinnertainment” five times a year, and the experience includes a professional comedy or musical accompanied by a satisfying buffet.
“Many people don’t know Dickson has a dinner theater,” says Pacer Harp, managing director of The Gaslight Dinner Theatre and Faraday Science Theatre at The Renaissance Center. “It makes for a wonderful evening. You can make it a date for two with private conversation, or you can make it a party of 10 and catch up with old friends. Church groups come in groups as large as 40 sometimes.”
Now in its ninth year, The Gaslight Dinner Theatre is produced in a space originally designed as a science theatre where students on field trips could see interactive and educational science shows.
“After one year of the space being used for its original purpose, we tested the room in another way,” Harp says. “We presented a country music and western-style revue in a dinner theater setting. We wrote the show ourselves, purchased costumes from Opryland’s ‘Country Music USA’ show and had it catered. It was very well received, so we decided to produce a dinner theater year-round.”
With only 80 seats, The Gaslight Dinner Theatre is an intimate atmosphere where there’s not a bad seat in the house. Crowd favorites from past years include Honky Tonk Angels, Nunsense, Run for Your Wife, Smoke on the Mountain and A Tuna Christmas.
The buffet always includes a salad bar, a selection of meats and vegetables, hot rolls, and cakes and pies.
Evening dinner performances take place on Fridays and Saturdays, and senior lunch matinees are offered Tuesday through Friday for patrons ages 55 and older. Tickets are $35 for dinner shows and $25 for lunch matinees.
“These shows are entirely professional talent and staff,” Harp says. “Dinner theater is an event of sorts, and you can decide the occasion. Celebrating a birthday or anniversary is common.”
Another way to experience theater at The Renaissance Center is attending one of four annual productions offered by the Renaissance Players Community Theatre. The Renaissance Players have more than 400 local members and present popular musicals and plays cast through open auditions.
The center also provides drama classes each semester for students ages 8 to 14.
“They learn stage directions, script reading and improv, and they usually end with a performance at the end of the semester,” Harp says. “Many students go on to audition for our community theater shows and perform year after year.”
For more information, visit www.rcenter.org.
Story by Jessica Mozo
