Colchester Theatre Company

The Colchester Theatre Company is a high school Theatre troupe in Colchester, Vermont, founded in 1977 by John Coon. It has been nominated for and presented with various awards for talent, effort, and commitment.

The Colchester Theatre Company has fallen into a tradition of performing three shows each year, as can be seen in the chart below. The fall and spring performances are large, multiple-act plays – such as Little Shop Of Horrors, or Dracula. The other show is a one-act play, performed for the Colchester Winter Carnival. The play performed for the Winter Carnival is usually light fare, such as a musical revue.

While the Theatre Company does perform musicals, they tend to be performed in the fall, since many scheduling conflicts arise between the Theatre Company and the school's Music Department because of various local music festivals during the spring months. However, as no musicals had been performed between 2004 and 2006, an extra effort was made to perform two musicals in the 2006–2007 season: Footloose, and the hit Broadway musical, Grease.

A concept that sits at the foundation of the Colchester Theatre Company's structure is that of ensemble. Casting is based on the way that people interact as the characters in the audition and not on the director's preference of one person over another. There is no distinguishing line between actors and technicians. Those who do not get parts are encouraged but not required to perform tech jobs for the show being performed.

The Colchester Theatre Company also annually puts on a Haunted Forest on the night before Halloween (commonly known as cabbage night), sponsored by the Colchester Police department – a no-charge event that has, according to the police department, greatly reduced the number of typical Cabbage Night crimes.

From 2001 to 2005, the Colchester Theatre Company hosted an annual non-competitive One-Act Festival called the Champlain Theatre Experience, under the joint guidance of John Coon of Colchester High School and Rod Ross of Winooski High School.