This week’s Daytrippin’ takes us all around South Carolina. We are featuring theatres that have been reimagined and put back into use. In the past each town traditionally had a movie theater centrally located in the business district. Walterboro had the Cook and the Ritz, Allendale had The Carolina Theater, Hampton had the Palmetto, and St George had the Lourie. Over the years some have been torn down to make way for progress, others have undergone an evolution and turned into venues to host live events. Many have kept the classic art deco style that was traditional to these theaters and others have been developed from long closed school theaters.
These theatres host great entertainment and bring the acts to the small-town environment. We have travelled around North, South Carolina, and Georgia to see shows at a number of these theatres. The small venue atmosphere with auditoriums seating between 150 to 500 seat are great locations to see national act being brought to these towns.
A few locations we have visited are the Newberry Opera House, a multi-story structure located in the heart of downtown Newberry. They have hosted plays and concerts, including Exile, the Oak Ridge Boys, as well as plays in conjunction with Newberry College and comedians. The Winyah Theatre is in Georgetown SC, they bring shows to the community and have a thriving theatre audience. We were able to see a John Denver Tribute Show that was amazing. Bennettsville has the Marlboro Civic Center, The up and coming theatre hosted a full house for a nationally recognized touring show, “MJ the Illusion”, this Michal Jackson Show recreated a Michael Jackson Concert Experience that was accurate from the costumes to the choreography. The Sumter Opera House brings a wide range of shows into town, top name entertainment in the downtown area with Hotels and Restaurants withing walking distance of the venue. ETV at one time hosted the “Bluegrass Express” Series in this venue.
North Carolina also has a number of small town venues with a heavy schedule of shows, the Liberty Showcase Theatre in Liberty NC., host mostly country acts but is a small 200 seat venue that you can see groups like Lonestar and Shenandoah. A unique experience for viewing groups you normally see in 1000+ seat arenas. Other venues in NC we tend to check out are the James Garner Center in Troy, NC and the Reidsville Showcase Theatre. In Roanoke Rapids, NC there is a rather large venue, “The Weldon Mills Theatre” that hosts international concerts like an ABBA Tribute Show and on the local level The Marshal Tucker Band will be playing the venue soon. This theatre is more on the level with the Myrtle Beach and Pigeon Forge Theatres.
All of these theatres and many more like them are well worth the trip. Before you leave town to see shows, you may want to check out what is happening locally at the Colleton Civic Center. Also know at the Hampton Street Auditorium and home to the Variety Series of shows in the 70’s and early 80’s. The venue, built in 1941, underwent extensive renovations and is now a state-of-the-art performance facility. It has hosted, the Spinners, Ricky Skaggs, The Wannabeatles a grammy winning band from Nashville, the Glow Band from Atlanta, the Governors School Ballet Performances and numerous other top-notch entertainment. An extensive list of upcoming shows are appearing at the venue in the next six months.
These are just a few of the auditoriums hosting shows all over North, South Carolina and Georgia. Best of all they are affordable and mostly withing driving distance for a day or overnight trip.