Cruisin' 4 HTUTS to offer variety of entertainment

Music! Dancers! Food! Cars! Theater! The Village of Hamburg will become very lively on Sunday, June 3, or “Hamburg Theatre Under the Stars Day,” as proclaimed by Mayor Tom Moses.

Cruisin’ 4 HTUTS, a fundraiser for Hamburg Theatre Under the Stars, will have something for everybody to enjoy.

There will be a parade of 60 vintage cars, live music by the Hamburg Flute Choir and the band Heard of Buffalo, a split raffle and performances by Mystic Dancers, a belly dancer group.

Cruisin’ 4 HTUTS will be selling tickets for the chance to see the 60 vintage cars close up; receive a free lunch either at O’Brien’s Farm Fresh Meats and Smokehouse or Coyote Café; get a 10 percent discount at Main Street Ice Cream, Village Sweet Shoppe, What A Woman Wants, Prima Oliva, crazy4bookz and Gear for Adventure; and admission to the presentation at the Hamburg Palace Theatre of “HTUTS Greatest Hits” which will have scenes from HTUTS’ past plays “Picnic,” “Cemetery Club” and “Bad Seed.” There will also be an exclusive summer preview of “You Can’t Take It With You,” which HTUTS will perform in Memorial Park this Labor Day weekend.

“There is also going to be a door prize for all ticket buyers,” said Tony Baksa, the founder and artistic director of HTUTS. “The door prize is going to be a basket that represents Hamburg, the businesses of Hamburg (and) gift cards. There is going to be over several hundred dollars worth of items in this one basket that someone can win.”

HTUTS, a volunteer organization that puts on free plays annually on Labor Day weekend in Memorial Park, was started four years ago and has drawn in thousands of people into Hamburg to watch its productions.

“Most services are donated,” said Baksa. “Money is sometimes donated. Things are donated, but we still need to defray costs for paying the rights to do the play, the royalties. Also, the scripts’ cost; we are talking about several hundred dollars. Last year we actually had headsets (microphones) donated to us by O’Brien’s. They have become sort of our major sponsor. That was several thousand dollars, just for the headsets, so people could hear.”

The event will last from 1 to 6 p.m. Lunch will be up until 4 p.m., when the scenes from previous HTUTS plays and the preview for this year’s play will be shown at the Hamburg Palace.

Tickets are being sold at O’Brien’s Farm Fresh Meats and Smokehouse, Coyote Cafe and Main Street Ice Cream at $20 per adult or $10 for children ages 17 and under. Cruisin’ 4 HTUTS is recognized as a Hamburg Bicentennial event.

For more information, people can call 648-6963, visit Hamburg Theatre Under the Stars’ website at www.HTUTS.com or search HTUTS on Facebook.