Our Beginning

We Started With Our Community

 The founders had an idea to bring people together through theatre.

The founders, Jim DeMersseman, Harold Hamler and Kent Smith, developed a plan and selected Annie Get Your Gun as their first production.

Then the community began to build the show. People auditioned. They rehearsed. They built scenery. They sewed costumes. Musicians joined the orchestra.

Local businesses donated materials and supplies. People throughout the community gave their time and talents to bring Annie Get Your Gun to the stage in June of 1974.

In the program, they called it “A Community Musical.” And inside that same program, the founders wrote that the production was created “by the people of Greeley for the people of Greeley.”

More than five decades later, the stages have changed. Thousands of people have stepped onstage, worked behind the scenes, played in the orchestra and sat in our audiences.

The original heart of the group hasn't changed. We still believe The Stampede Troupe is For the Community, By the Community.

Built By Our Community

Moving Forward With Our Community

What began with one production in 1974 became more than the founders could have known.

The support of our community gave The Stampede Troupe room to grow. Local businesses became partners. The school district gave us a place to perform, with Greeley Central High School becoming our first home. Over the years, new stages opened to us, new partnerships formed and our reach extended beyond the people performing onstage.

Today, that includes bringing thousands of area students to experience live theatre, creating opportunities for people of all ages to take part, and continuing to find new ways to make theatre accessible to our community.

We don't know what stages we'll perform on fifty years from now or whose names will be in the programs. But we know what will make those productions possible.

The same thing that made the first one possible. Our community.

For the Community, By the Community.