About Us
We're glad
you're here!
The Grand Island Little Theatre has been providing quality, live entertainment in Grand Island and the surrounding communities for over 50 years. Now, we're pleased to raise the curtain on our brand new website to reach an even larger audience.
Whether
you're looking for show times, show tickets or a unique volunteer opportunity,
this is the place. Can't find what
you're looking for? Give our Box
Office a call at 308-382-2586 and we'll be happy to help.
Want to keep
up with the latest GILT news? Be
sure to sign up to receive our newsletter in your Inbox!
Our History
The Grand Island Little Theatre, also known as GILT, was started in 1960
by a group of Grand Island residents who had a passion for theatre.
Until 2004, it had been a totally volunteer organization preparing and
performing 4 to 6 productions each year..jpg)
Over fifty years later,
it is still a viable and vibrant part of the Grand Island community.
GILT is still providing quality family entertainment to the community
and surrounding areas at a affordable cost. For most of the first 50
years, GILT lacked a permanent place to call their home. Sets were
built and painted in one or more locations and then moved to the site of
the show. Costumes and props were accumulated and then lugged to the
show site. The “box office” was operated wherever they could find a
location. Then, after the last performance of the show, the set was
dismantled and what could be saved was saved wherever they could find a
willing owner – maybe someone’s garage, basement or storage shed. As
soon as those things were in storage, they began the next production.
Always
in the minds of the volunteers was, “Where will we hold our next
performance? For many years, performances were held at the Old Walnut
Junior High, then at the Liederkranz, and more recently at College
Park. This was confusing and troublesome for the audiences and the
volunteers. 
In 1998, the GILT Board of Directors saw an
opportunity to provide what they thought would be a permanent home for
this acting group, and they purchased the former Piccadilly Dinner
Theater in downtown GI. They began plans for renovating the building;
they held one show in that location and they started a capital
campaign. Soon, they discovered that the building had asbestos and that
it was not structurally sound. Thus, it was determined they could not
hold performances there any longer. So the casts, crews and all helping
hands were back on the road.
The renovation plans needed a total
overhaul, and when this happened, the capital campaign also hit a snag.
But the faithful volunteers never lost sight of their goal to find a
permanent home.
In June, 2004, there was an article in the
Independent stating that the owners of the Grand Theater would entertain
the idea of giving the theater to a non-profit organization. The Board
of Directors knew that theatre was in better condition than the
building presently owned by GILT so they began visiting with the owners
and looking at the building on several different occasions. They
visited with contractors, the city building inspector, fire marshal and
contractors, trying to determine if they could save the integrity of
that beautiful building and make it work for GILT. In the end, as you
know, it was determined that the Grand Theatre could not be renovated
into a performing arts stage without an astronomical price tag and
demolition of a beautiful historic building. The GILT board did
something that every non-profit board is very reluctant to do-- they
said “no, thank you” to the gift because GILT would have had two
buildings and neither of them really met their needs.
As time
passed, costs of renovating the building downtown continued to grow as
costs of materials grew. About the same time, the GILT board began
talks with the College Park Board of Directors to determine if there was
a possibility that GILT and College Park could work together to
mutually benefit each organization.
Following hours of discussion,
GILT and College Park entered into an agreement whereby GILT would raise
the funds necessary to build an addition to the Hornady-Marshall
Theater. Preliminary plans included building a green room, dressing
rooms and restrooms as well as space for the storage of props and
costumes, a scene shop to build and paint sets and a rehearsal area so
we will have a place to audition and rehearse without occupying the
stage, allowing other groups to use it. The box office and the
administrative office would also be part of the addition.
The
GILT Board of Directors determined that the downtown facility needed to
be sold. Fortunately, it sold within a few months and GILT moved their
belongings into yet another temporary facility on East Highway 30 until
their permanent home was complete.
In March 2010, the dream came
true. We moved into our permanent home at College Park on Highway 34.
Upon successful completion of the Capital Campaign (and collection of
all pledges), we will be tenants of our own home—something we have
sorely missed over the past five decades. It also means that College
Park has become a true performing arts theater.
For the GI
community and surrounding areas, it means GILT has been a good steward
of our supporters’ and patrons’ gifts—we have helped improve a theatre
that was not fully utilized before, but now it is. GILT didn’t need to
recreate a stage, the seating, sound and lights and all the amenities a
theatre needs. Those things were already at College Park. Now, the
Hornady-Marshall Theatre will be more fully utilized and the cost to
GILT was far less than the cost of renovating the downtown building or
starting from scratch.
