History
The Milford Theatre Guilde was formed on October 5th, 1994. An article was placed in the local newspaper-seeking people interested in forming a community theatre group for the Greater Milford area. 15 people showed up at the meeting, and several more attended subsequent meetings. We took up a collection, which netted $34, but we were undaunted. We decided to do a play. And the rest, as they say, is History!
The original founding members included Doug Ball, Wayne Bollman, Bernice Croiter, Mary Gardner, Lonna Kingsburry, Andrea & Kunie Kolb, Sue Leen, Jane & Jim Lindahl, Kevin Minney, Bob Quehl, Lori Riley, Linda Roll, Shannon Roll, Betty & Jerry Rooms, Barb, Steve, and Charles Russell, Marcy Schutte, Betty Shoop, Dan Stauft, Alisha & Mike Trasser, Jason Wells, Lynn & Ruth Wonder.
Our
first production was “Arsenic and Old Lace” which was presented in the
spring of 1995. All of us used our credit cards to buy the things we needed. We
built Hollywood flats, with the help of a gentleman who was the shop foreman at
CCM. We borrowed costumes from other theatre companies in the area. We worked
night and day to present this show to the community.
We held our first production at Milford High School and to this day, this
is the best-attended show we have ever done. The community accepted us and we
were on our way.
The
road was not easy. We had a name change for a few years, but returned to our
original name of Milford Theatre Guilde. We lost our home at the high school and
began looking for other venues. We performed shows at St. Andrews Parish Center,
at the Masonic Lodge in downtown Cincinnati and at Brookwood Retirement
Community. We felt that this period of being nomads was hurting our attendance.
A
few years ago, one of the churches in Milford added a family life center and we presented
“12 Angry Men”, which was the first use of the facility. Then in
2005, we presented our first show at The Mulberry Elementary School. After 11 years, we finally
had a home, or more precisely, 2 homes. We now perform at the
Mulberry Elementary School in Milford and at St. Andrews Parish Center.
From
these humble beginnings, we are proud of what we have accomplished. We have
brought theater to the greater Milford area and into Clermont County. (We are 1
of a few theaters in existence in the county).
We
joined ACT of Cincinnati in 1997 and
OCTA in 1999.
We
celebrated our 10th season by once again performing
“Arsenic and Old Lace”. Our goal was to bring back as many of the
original cast members as possible in this production and we are happy to say
that was quite well received. We look
forward to many more years of bringing quality theatre to our community.
Past Productions
Come with us for a walk down memory lane as we take a look at some of our past shows...
Fund Raisers
It takes money to put on a show, so let's take a look at a few snapshots from various fund raisers that MTG has done over the past few years...
In Memory:
-
Steve Farfsing, a long time friend of many here at MTG suddenly passed away on Thursday morning Feb. 24th 2005 at University Hospital. Visitation was held on Monday Feb 28th 2005 and the services were held on Tuesday March 1st 2005.
