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A History of Beechmont Players

BPI performed their first production, Solid Gold Cadillac, in the fall of 1959 and has presented seasons of shows ever since, having performed for more than 100,000 people. They are going into the Players’ 65th year of continuous community entertainment and their 17th full season as the Arts Organization in Residence at the Anderson Center. BPI's home, the state-of-the-art 223-seat Anderson Center Theatre, provides an outstanding venue for Beechmont Players’ award-winning entertainment.

Anderson Center Venue Information

  • Venue Address: 7850 Five Mile Road, Cincinnati, OH 45244

  • Venue Owned? Rented

  • Stage Dimensions: See Diagram

  • Set Construction On Site: Big unit pieces and smaller set pieces are built and painted off site then torn down to transport if needed. Full construction then happens once in the theatre space.

  • Wing Space: See Diagram

  • Fly System: None

  • Load In: Sunday of opening week; typically, the space becomes ours at noon. Sometimes we get lucky and can take it at 9:00am if there was no group before us using the theatre.

  • Time Onstage Before Opening: 5 days before opening night

  • Lighting Equipment: ION XE light board with 52 Leko, 36 Fresnel, 8 movers and 5 CYC lights. House lights are ceiling can lights plus sconces on both sides of house.

  • Lighting Equipment Owned? Rented: included in space

  • Lighting Control: We have control of all stage and house lights once programmed within the board

  • Lighting Restrictions: We are permitted to add gels, gobos, and adjust position of lights that are moveable, but they all have to be returned to the original state/position at strike.

  • Available Dim Channels: About 150

  • Sound Equipment: Yamaha Digital mixing console M7CL

  • Sound Equipment Owned? Rented: included in space minus a few exceptions listed below.

  • Sound Restrictions: If we perform a musical, we must rent wireless mics. The center does not have their own. The hanging mics on stage only send sound to the dressing room, green room, back hallways, scene shop and lobby- they do not project sound to the audience. Those hanging mics are the only sound equipment pieces “preset” for our group and they aren’t even programmed to the mixer properly half the time. We have access to monitors, stand mics and cords but the set up and programming of them is all on us. We also have to provide our own device/connection cords to send out sound effects to the house.

  • Other Restrictions: Since this is a shared township government building, we are restricted more than other places. We have no control over parking spaces, where the bathrooms are, or how a different event across the hall may be loud during our intermission (yes, judges have commented on all these things before). We cannot decorate the lobby more than the lobby display board and concession table. We cannot sell or give away alcohol. We cannot use a lot of “special effects” in the sense of confetti, glitter, etc. on the stage or in the house. We cannot sell more tickets than there are seats aka standing room only/add outside seats for a sold-out show.

  • Year Founded: 1959

  • Full Time Staff? No. BPI is 100% volunteer. The Anderson Center has staff however, none of them are trained on any of the equipment in the theatre. If we have a lighting or sound problem, we have to find someone who has worked on our shows in the past to help us. They have an employee in the building during most hours we are there, but they do nothing in aiding our production except for setting out the lobby display board and giving us a table for concessions.

  • Website: http://beechmontplayers.org

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