02/16/2026
HISTORY of FirstLight Players and the Drama Group of First Unitarian Church of Rochester
It may come as a surprise to some discovering FirstLight Players for the very first time that we have decades of history. Since the late 1970's, the “Drama Group” of First Unitarian Church of Rochester has been active - that’s over 40 years of showbiz! We adopted our new name, FirstLight Players, our tagline "Illuminating Theatre", and our professional logo in 2012. We are an experienced troupe, evolving and learning from one another, and providing developed stage troupers and talented newcomers a space to move audiences.
Early in our history, our founders did much to make certain drama and music filled lives, while giving an outlet to the many actors and singers who were drawn to and welcomed from the Rochester community. Fourteen Gilbert & Sullivan light operettas brought finely voiced singing actors to us, who enjoyed elaborate costuming and scenery creations. Players likewise were tickled to have an outlet to create Shakespearean compilations. Other plays produced during the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s were: Twelve Angry Jurors, The Crucible, The Browning Version, Under Milkwood, The Good Doctor, Canterbury Tales, Warren, and The Careful Dreamer.
During the 2000’s, we presented an annual cabaret musical review, weaving together popular tunes from Broadway to express a theme or concept, or to further explore the monthly worship themes of the congregation. The casts included children, teens and adults from inside and outside the church membership. These included “Lemonade”, “Galleria Unitaaria”, and “A Shakespeare Evening”, just to name a few. In 2009 we brought out antiquity garb and had another hit using pop and Broadway tunes with an original script: “Ulysses-A Unitarian Odyssey: A Musical Adventure”.
The new century also brought a new wave of leadership, trained and educated in drama and music arts, who welcomed many more artists to productions. Our writers created new Christmas Pageants with original dialogue, lyrics, and music. “Under the Tree” in 2009 and “Wisdom 101” in 2010 were thoughtful hits for the holiday season, presented as part of our church services at First Unitarian. These all-original musicals, besides showcasing adult talent, gave children solo voice with advancement to be future stars beyond our venue. In 2008 we partook in a feature article by the Democrat & Chronicle newspaper with photos of choir members from our cast in September's welcoming ceremony. 2010 summer congregants and our pros partnered to create a music video to premier at our homecoming church service in September, entitled “Coming Home”.
FLP enjoyed a very active period from 2011-2015 with a string of Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals to thrill our audiences: 2011 “Is There Life after High School?”, 2012 Rogers & Hammerstein review “A Grand Night for Singing”, 2013 “A Man of No Importance”, 2014 “Death Takes a Holiday”; 2015 “Leap of Faith”. For “Leap”, we partnered with Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church. They took this leap with us as they brought their own brand of gospel style singing to the production, creating a blend of Zion Hill, Spiritus Christi Gospel Choir, First Unitarian, and Rochester community singers to the cast. In 2013, we joined Theatre Association of New York State (TANYS) and in 2014 were awarded by adjudication a plethora of honors for our troupe. See the ‘Awards’ section below.
2016 brought a return to original material, producing a dinner-theatre experience with “Musical Mystery of 1937”. In 2017 we interpreted several of the monthly worship themes though a variety of short performances within our church services: a Shakespeare scene, some Japanese poetry with music, and even an experiential contra dance that the whole congregation took part in.
From 2017-2019, we were thrilled to bring to Rochester an original play, “An Equal Right to Act: Remembering the Second Woman’s Rights Convention of 1848”. We performed this important work in seven different venues including the Rochester Public Market, the Rochester Fringe Fest, several libraries, and the conference of the Raging Grannies. The Second Convention was held at the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, two weeks after the more famous First Convention at Seneca Falls, so it was fitting to let more local people know about it through this dramatic performance.
In 2019 we hosted a community-wide talent night to celebrate the Spring Equinox, called “Equal Light Talent Night”. Over 30 performers from throughout the Rochester area graced us with their interpretations of equality and renewal.
In January 2020, we held a comedy improv workshop to explore our monthly worship theme, “Responding to Truth”. It was a huge success, attended by 30 people, some of whom had never tried doing improv before. “Yes, and...”
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Yearning to bring people together from our separate homes, in May 2021 FLP "staged" a virtual performance of the funny one-act play "The Ugly Duckling" by A.A.Milne to explore the church's theme of "Trusting in Transformation" and raise funds for Point of Pride. It was an ambitious undertaking with a cast of seven, all rehearsed and performed from our homes using Zoom. We partnered with friends at Rochester Institute of Technology to provide our digital scenery and effects so the audience would see a composite scene livestreamed over Vimeo, as if we were together. We had 64 viewers of the livestream and 208 views of the recording of the next day.
We took the next few years to explore material. We hosted a reading circle where we took turns reading play excerpts, and we held interest meetings to determine what we wanted to do as we emerged from the pandemic. At long last, our first in-person production after the pandemic was in April 2024, just two weeks after Rochester experienced a total solar eclipse in the path of totality. Finding no plays about eclipses, our FLP team researched, wrote, and produced an original one-act play "A Glowing Halo: The Quest for Truth in the Heavens" that traveled through time and science to understand a theorized planet Vulcan between the Sun and Mercury, a local astronomer, Lewis Swift, who thought he'd seen it during the total solar eclipse of 1878, and how that theory was finally debunked by Albert Einstein.
The FirstLight Players team looks forward to many more years of joy within the richly talented Rochester, NY community theatre scene.
Awards
Theatre Association of New York State (TANYS):
“First Light Players’ production of Death Takes a Holiday, The Musical is a breath of fresh air to the Rochester community theater scene. With impressive performances and skillful direction, First Light Players has made the statement that they are ready to bring thoughtful, innovative theater to the area.”
#1 Outstanding Vocal Performance to Ron Herman as Major Eric Fenton
#2 Excellence in Acting to Tyler Lucero as Death/Prince Nikolai Sirki
#3 Excellence in Vocal Performance and Acting to Katya Lyubomirsky as Grazia Lamberti
#4 Excellence in Direction to Mary Lyubomirsky
#5 Excellence in Music Direction to Dean Ekberg
#6 Meritorious Achievement in Acting and Vocal Performance to Sarajane Fondiller as Contessa Evangelina Di San Danielli
#7 Meritorious Achievement in Ensemble Work to the Cast, Production Team, Technical Team and Orchestra
