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Chattanooga Theatre Centre will celebrate Centennial Season with 11 shows

Photo by Brad Cansler / The Chattanooga Theatre Centre will celebrate its 100th anniversary in the 2023-24 season. As part of its commitment to diversity, the theater is producing August Wilson's American Century Cycle, a canon of 10 plays that portray the African American experience through the 20th century, one play each season through 2028. "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," from June 2022, starred, from left, Hayden Poe, Kennedi Boyland (in front), Mercedes Johnson, Bruce Shaw, LaFrederick Thirkill, Ramses McKinstry, Shelia Wofford, Chelsea Branch, Jeffrey Pinkerton and Aneja Raiteri. Not pictured is Donel Solomon.
Photo by Brad Cansler / The Chattanooga Theatre Centre will celebrate its 100th anniversary in the 2023-24 season. As part of its commitment to diversity, the theater is producing August Wilson's American Century Cycle, a canon of 10 plays that portray the African American experience through the 20th century, one play each season through 2028. "Joe Turner's Come and Gone," from June 2022, starred, from left, Hayden Poe, Kennedi Boyland (in front), Mercedes Johnson, Bruce Shaw, LaFrederick Thirkill, Ramses McKinstry, Shelia Wofford, Chelsea Branch, Jeffrey Pinkerton and Aneja Raiteri. Not pictured is Donel Solomon.

By Barry Courter 5 min read

To help celebrate 100 years of theater meant to bring the community together, the Chattanooga Theatre Centre will present 11 shows for its 2023-24 season. They’ll range from classics to contemporary to comically campy productions.

Each performance was chosen because it represents, in some way, each of the 10 decades that the theater has been in existence, according to Executive Director Rodney Van Valkenburg.

Van Valkenburg said the performances were selected because they showcase the type of community theater the CTC has tried to be over the years.

“It allows us to talk about our great history,” he said by phone. “It gives us the opportunity to talk about each decade.”

Originally formed as The Little Theatre Inc., in 1923, the company’s first productions were performed in the newly opened Little Theatre, now known as the Walker Theatre, inside Memorial Auditorium.