ABOUT US

​About 8 North Center for the Arts

In 1909, Famed local Architect Harry Hake designed an Exchange Building for the local phone company. When that use was no longer needed, the charming and historic building at 8 N. Fort Thomas Avenue was purchased by the Fort Thomas Woman’s Club in 1941. Village Players of Fort Thomas, which began as a subsidiary of the Woman’s Club in 1966, has been producing top-quality theatre in the building’s lower level since 1967. In 2018, the Woman’s Club voted to disband and graciously gifted the property to Village Players, which immediately began crafting plans to modernize the space for accessibility, comfort and expanded use. In 2025, to reflect its long-term vision, Village Players officially renamed the building "8 North Center for the Arts."

Taking inspiration from the Fort Thomas Woman’s Club credo, “to help others is to elevate ourselves, and to elevate ourselves is to help others,” 8 North Center for the Arts seeks to become a center for creative expression—providing cultural and artistic experiences that enhance our entire community and attract visitors and organizations to the heart of the city.​

​

About Village Players of Fort Thomas

 In 1960, the Fort Thomas Woman's Club started producing variety shows as one of their fundraisers. In 1967, the troupe of performers built the black box performance space (now called the "Mary & Don Haas Theater after two of those founders), named themselves "Village Players" and launched as a community theatre. Since then, we have  been continually producing plays and musicals for almost 60 years. Our productions range across a spectrum of periods and styles, presented in our intimate three-quarter thrust performance space in the heart of Fort Thomas, Kentucky. We stage innovative and of-the-moment works alongside beloved classic pieces while serving as an incubator for new talent, ideas, and writing. Each theatre season features four mainstage shows, including a family-friendly holiday production, a summer production of original short plays produced by the New Works branch of the group. 

​

Village Players is a member of the American Association of Community Theatre (AACT), Association of Community Theatres Cincinnati (ACT), Ohio Community Theatre Association (OCTA), and the Kentucky Theatre Association (KTA).

​

About the Judith M. Sarakatsannis Gallery

When the Exchange Building was given to the Village Players in 2018, the first renovation project was to turn the all-purpose room on the street-level into an art gallery. This was made possible through a generous donation from Marcia and David Hosea, who asked that we name the gallery in honor of their dear friend, whose self-portrait hangs in a place of honor in the space.​

​

Gallery programming can be anything from a themed show of local artists' works coordinated with a theatre production (the "Backdrop" series) to a full program of works on display, lectures and classes related to an artist's work such as the Nov 2025 exhibit, "Nature Reimagined: The Joyful Art of Charley Harper", to vintage concert posters, to photography, or "art to argue over" (the first "Backdrop" show, coordinated with our production of the play "Art" by Yasmina Reza)

​

Other types of Programming

Besides these two established program departments, we are interested in providing all sorts of opportunities for artistic exposure and expression. This can include classes, concerts, board game nights, crafting circle nights, play readings, poetry slams, really whatever sounds like fun and has people to run it - if you have ideas of something you'd like to create or attend, let us know!

​