History

For over a quarter-century, Richmond Triangle Players has transformed our community’s conversations about diversity and inclusion through the production of LGBTQ-themed works. A nonprofit, professional theatre company organized in 1993, RTP delivers adventurous and entertaining theater as the leading voice in the community’s explorations of equality, identity, affection and family, across sexual orientation and gender spectrums.

Since its inception, Richmond Triangle Players has filled a significant void in our community’s cultural life. RTP is the only professional theatre company in the Richmond area – and the longest continually operating one in the entire Mid-Atlantic region — which expressly and regularly serves the LGBTQ community. While other local theatres occasionally produce plays with LGBTQ content, only Triangle Players has made an ongoing commitment to LGBTQ artists, issues, audiences and community support.

It is hard to imagine that any other theater in Richmond has made a more substantial or transformational change than Richmond Triangle Players has made in the last decade.   In 2009, RTP vacated the crumbling building in which its theater had been housed and transformed an old radiator shop in then-unknown neighborhood, into a warm, welcoming and exciting performance venue.

Since that time, RTP has won acclaim from its growing and diverse audiences, as well as from the Richmond Theatre Critics Circle, with over 100 “Best” nominations, the inaugural People’s Choice Award, and awards for Best Play and Best Musical twice each. The readers of STYLE Weekly have twice voted Richmond Triangle Players as Richmond’s Best Local Theatre Company, in addition to naming RTP in its “Top Three” every year.

Additional plaudits have come from the national publication Playbill.com, which named RTP as one of the 15 most important theaters of its kind in the nation, as well as in an editorial from the famously conservative Richmond Times-Dispatch which said, in part: “RTP has been consistently willing to explore tough issues involving people who are gay in America and the challenges — and triumphs — they experience … Their dramatic success here has opened doors and opened minds the old-fashioned way — through laughter, tears, and telling truth.”

Richmond Triangle Players has maintained its commitment to diversity in programming not only by producing an annual series of plays, but also in collaborating on new events, in showcasing some of the country’s most celebrated cabaret artists on its stage, and in opening its doors to support and incubate other theaters.

In 2018, Richmond Triangle Players was honored at the statewide Equality Virginia dinner as one of that year’s “OUTstanding Virginians,” and in 2019 was privileged to be named a “Richmond History Maker,” by the Valentine Museum and Capital Region Collaborative.

RTP is also the cultural anchor of Scott’s Addition, one of the most vibrant new neighborhoods in Richmond to live, play or work, hosting over 160 events to the delight of over 10,000 enthusiastic patrons annually.

Most important, during RTP’s capstone celebration in June 2018, Triangle Players was proud to announce the completion of its 25^th Anniversary Capital Campaign which enabled the company to purchase its building free and clear, complete exterior renovations including a signature marquee canopy, refresh its lobby and bar area, add a staff position, upgrade its lighting and sound equipment, undergird its Annual Fund, and establish both an Operating Reserve Fund and an endowed fund for the development of New Works.

We are especially grateful for the significant, naming gift from the Carpenter Foundation that provided the cornerstone funding for the entire Campaign.