First City Players (FCP) is the Ketchikan area’s community theatre organization. FCP was organized by a dedicated group of volunteers in 1965 and has been an active theatre for 45 years. FCP incorporated as a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization in August 1966.

For many years FCP produced plays in many different venues in Ketchikan, including the Kayhi Auditorium, Schoenbar Middle School, the Sons of Norway, the Fireside Restaurant and many, many other locations. The group produced musicals, contemporary and classical plays, drama and comedy as well as children’s productions. FCP participated in many regional drama festivals and have always been noted for their excellent productions.

In 1983 FCP took over management of what was the Main Street Theatre. In 1985 the theatre received a capital grant from the Alaska State Council on the Arts to begin renovations. With this grant, community fundraising and the work of many dedicated volunteers, the Main Street Theatre opened its doors in the spring of 1986 with the play Painting Churches by Tina Howe, directed by Carol Cairnes Schafer. With the opening of the theatre it became necessary for FCP to hire an artistic director to manage the facility and to administer and direct a regular season of plays.

Since 1988 FCP has produced regular seasons of plays and workshops. The theatre began to sell season subscriptions for the 1989-1990 season. The FCP production schedule has grown from one winter show and a summer production of Ketchikan’s original musical melodrama The Fish Pirate’s Daughter, to a full year-round schedule of theatrical events.

In October of 1995 FCP produced the musical Annie on the new Kayhi stage. The response to the large cast musical was tremendous and the theatre continues to produce a large cast musical each fall as one of our major season events.

In the past ten years FCP has expanded its youth programming. Beginning in the summer of 1997 FCP began offering children’s theatre classes. The first summer involved over 20 children in three different classes learning improvisation, storytelling and movement skills. In the summer of 1998 FCP joined with the KAAHC to start ArtsCool a summer fine and performing arts camp. FCP in co-operation with Ketchikan Theatre Ballet, now enrolls up to 60 children ages 5 – 16 in classes that culminate in a fully staged musical production.

In the winter of 1999 FCP began a second children’s program, ActOut winter children’s theatre classes. These classes are for students from Kindergarten through 12th grades. These classes give students opportunities to learn a number of different theatrical skills, from different instructors. Classes include Creative Dramatics, Improvisation, Acting and Music Theatre. ActOut also incorporates the ActOut Performance Company, a group of talented youth performers who perform a non-musical production each spring. The APC have performed everything from Shakespeare to original productions.

With the growth of our programming, it became necessary to hire an Operations Manager to work on fundraising, volunteer coordination and office management. FCP obtained a one-time grant from the Ketchikan Area Arts and Humanities Council and hired a managing director in February of 2002. Since that time we have tripled our membership, increased our volunteer base and are currently working on finding new funding sources for our programs.

In the winter of 2002 FCP lost the lease with our longtime landlords at the Main Street Theatre. We moved to a new office location at 716 Totem Way in May of 2002 and produced the majority of our productions on the Kayhi stage. It was later decided that there was the need to move to a larger, more accessible office space, and to try and find alternative performance space as well. In April 2007 we moved to our new, spacious location upstairs at the Plaza Mall and have performed four productions at the Plaza. We will continue to use the beautiful Kayhi auditorium for many of our productions and continue to explore the possibilities of alternate spaces for our more intimate plays.

In June 2009 First City Players, in partnership with the Ketchikan Theatre Ballet, purchased the old Elks Building located at 335 Main Street. This 21,000 square foot building will become the home for the performing arts in Ketchikan.