The Schaffner Players

was $350 for three months, by the late eighties it had reached $8,500. Salaries also had to be increased to remain competitive with other summer jobs.

Jimmy was unable to get the show out for the 1984 season. He explained in a letter to some friends: Perhaps you have heard the rumor that the Schaffner Players Tent Theatre is not on its tour of the Midwest this season? The rumor is correct. I have spent the entire winter and spring building the route and producing the shows for the 1984 season. As I opened my rehearsals in June, I had just enough people hired to cast the shows. I was in the process of hiring two additional men to do ‘leads’. On the third day of rehearsals one of the cast members ‘jumped the show’, leaving me with five young, eager, people who had not yet learned to carry their parts, double specialties, and drive the trucks. Inasmuch as I have to open in a very short period of time, I was forced to let the entire cast go, cancel all the major dates, and shut down the theater operation until next month.

I have moved the ‘outfit’ to the Old Threshers grounds and it will remain there until I set it