ABOUT TRINITY PLAYERS

Part outreach, part education, part cultural opportunity, Trinity Players’ productions address universal themes of humanity.

Productions involve friends and family of TUCC, as well as members of the local community. For over 60 years, Trinity Players has produced musicals and dramas for our local community and beyond.

Trinity Players was established in 1956 by the Rev. H. Clayton Moyer, who was pastor of TUCC at the time of its creation. Rev. Moyer was active as the group’s guiding light until his death in January 2020.

He remains an inspiration for this locally-loved group.

THE HISTORY OF THE TRINITY PLAYERS COSTUME LOFT

Trinity Players Costume Loft had existed since 1996 when the families of Gerry Schmid and Kay Yaukey moved costumes from Fran Lower’s attic in less than two hours. The inherited seeds of our loft collection had been housed in her tiny attic since the 1960s after the closing of the Waynesboro Little Theatre. The collection has quadrupled with over five hundred hats, hundreds of pairs of shoes, more than 300 gowns, and perhaps 400 street-length dresses in our New England-style church, where high steel beams in the loft hold the overflow of costumes!

These treasures serve as a unique outreach, with borrowers frequently coming from a 60-mile radius. In a given year, loans have been made over 75 times annually to church groups, civic and community organizations, colleges, high schools, and individuals. Trinity costumes have appeared on the stages of Columbia and Yale Universities, Gettysburg College, in Lincoln Center’s Downton Abbey display “Lady Grantham’s Closet” (Theatrical Wardrobe Union Local 764), the national tour of SWEENEY TODD, and more.

Significant costume donations have been made to the loft from an astounding variety of resources, including castoffs at the closings of Broadway’s COMPANY and SWEENEY TODD (all shoes, including Patti LuPone's). The collection includes a few items from Studio 54’s CABA-RET and bundles of exquisite fabric cleared from backstage during Broadway’s BILLY ELLIOTT. Forty pairs of 1930’s-1940’s ladies' shoes (mostly large sizes) were donated as repayment for shoes borrowed for a year-long SWEENEY tour. Whole collections have been donated from groups not wishing to invest in the organizational process.

The agreement for borrowed costumes is simple: 

1. A token cash/check donation for loft upkeep and purchase of costume-worthy pieces.

2. Volunteer help of at least two hours for large loans and one hour for very small loans. Many borrowers bring groups and graciously offer several hours of volunteer help. Keeping order in the loft is a job of considerable magnitude; therefore, volunteer help is essential. Many schools borrow van loads of costumes and then bring some of the cast to pay back.

3. Proper cleaning of costumes is also required before returns are made. Kay Yaukey (our Loft-ess) determines the meaning of “proper!”

for loft inquiries, please contact:

Kay Yaukey
Loft Caretaker/Trinity Players Treasurer

717-749-5559. 717-816-2053

kyaukey@comcast.net