WE ARE KEEPING THE ARTBEAT ALIVE BECAUSE WE L❤VE THE ARTS! The Franklin-Simpson Community Arts Council is celebrating 44 years of bringing great arts and entertainment to Franklin and the surrounding area. Since Covid, the last five years have been very, very busy making up for lost time, after not having the opportunity to perform for you. We were so happy to finally bring arts and entertainment to you once again in June 2021. We were so excited to be back in the newly renovated, Goodnight, Auditorium and delighted to host the wonderful artistry of two lovely, talented ladies, Kathy Mattea & Suzy Bogguss, with their first joint performance, Together at Last. We followed that up in July with an encore performance of Debbie Thornton's Historical Fiction, This Place We Call Home, based on our hometown, Franklin, Kentucky. We celebrated our 40th Anniversary that August with a Summer Musical Review, we also helped sponsor the inaugural Summer Vibes Festival held in Downtown Franklin, as well as the High School Musical, In the Heights. In addition, in October 2021, we once again sponsored the Halloween Costume Contest during Boofest, followed up with our annual Christmas play, The Bigger/Better Pageant at Barrington Hills and our annual Christmas Concert in December.
We did not slow down, and in 2022, we immediately got to work on our February Youth Theatre Production of Disney's Aladdin, Jr, with lots of great acting and singing from about 50 local children. We followed that up in March by performing the hilarious comedy, Greater Tuna, as part of our Retro Series, and in July, we performed the award-winning musical Fiddler on the Roof as our annual Summer Musical production and once again help sponsor the Summer Vibes Festival in August. The year continued with us sponsoring our annual Costume Contest during Boofest in October, and our annual Christmas Concert the 1st of December. We ended 2022 with bang by performing the hilarious follow up to Greater Tuna, Tuna Christmas as a Dinner Theatre in mid-December.
2023 was no different as we continued to bring lots of great programing to the community. We held our first ever Murder Mystery Dinner in February.You Have the Right to Remain Dead was a resounding success, as we had sell-out crowds for all three performances. We then brought the popular Disney's The Descendants to the stage for our Youth Theatre Production in March. We help sponsor the Independence Day Parade on the 4th along with The Summer Musical, "Matilda the Musical" performed in July, sponsored the Summer Vibes Festival again in August, along with our Retro Series Dinner Theatre production of Steel Magnolias which was also held in August. We continued with us sponsoring our annual Costume Contest during Boofest in October, and in December, we held our annual Christmas Concert and also sponsored the High School Musical "Grease".
In 2024, in addition to the sell-out Murder Mystery Dinner "Murders in the Heir" in February, we held our annual Youth Theatre Production of "Finding Nemo, Jr." in March. We helped sponsor the annual Independence Day Parade again in July along with our Summer Musical, the very popular classic "Oklahoma" in July. The talent in this production was amazing and I was told it was our best Summer Musical ever and even Broadway level. August brought the Summer Vibes Festival which is becoming a very popular event and bring thousands of visitors to downtown Franklin. We sponsored our annual Boofest Costume Contest again in October, and in November, we held another Youth Theatre Production, Lion King, Jr., which was a resounding success, with a cast of very talented kids and capacity crowds every night. December brought our annual Arts Council Christmas Concert, and we help sponsor the newly for Community Christmas Chorus which presented their first ever Christmas Concert. Also in December, we performed our first ever Radio Play as a Dinner Theatre at the Roxy Theatre. Based on everybody's favorite Christmas movie, "It"s a Wonderful Life" was awesome and we sold out all three performances. We haven't slowed down in 2025, as we revived "Love Letters" as a Dinner Theatre at the Roxy in February. We sponsored the High School Production of the "Little Mermaid" in March. The Community Chorus held their second Concert in May which we were please to help sponsor, and we held another Dinner Theatre, a funny and touching performance of the play, "Grace & Glorie" at the end of May. Our first ever Youth Theatre Camp "Little Cats Big Stage" will be held next June, along with the film promoting the Sandford Duncan Inn which we were very pleased to provide monetary help, cast members, and costumes. This year's Summer Musical in July will be the very popular "Mamma Mia". We will once again help sponsor our normal events, Summer Vibes, Boofest Costume Contest and our annual Christmas Concert. However, I think everybody is most excited about this year's Youth Theatre, which will be "Elf the Musical, Jr.", to be held the second week of December.
As you can see, we have provided some wonderful events for our local community and the surrounding area. We hope you have been able to attend some of them and will agree we provide enjoyable, quality entertainment. If you have not had the pleasure, I invite you to do just that. Please continue to check this website on the Future Events Tabs with more detailed information as it becomes available.