The BUM Players are a small, yet dedicated group of people dedicated to the worship of God via the sharing of the special gifts which we acknowledge as coming solely from Him. From the beginning, we have basically been a small core-group of about a half dozen people surrounded by an ever-changing cast of characters lending their talents as people have come and gone along with the constant ebb and flow of church life. The BUM Players are truly an ecumenical undertaking, having often used talent imported from other local churches to help supplement occasional "talent voids" within our own church.

The BUM Players are the brainchild of our current Lay Leader, Gary Thomas. As a collegiate, Gary had studied theater right here at SUNY Brockport, as well as being heavily involved in the now-defunct Brockport Community Players. Way back in 1990, when he was first asked to become the Lay Leader under Reverend Gail Carpenter, he came up with the idea of presenting a 20-minute drama as an alternative to a sermon for the first Laity Sunday he was asked to officiate in October of that year. Not being comfortable delivering a spoken message, and wishing to share his temporarily latent talents, he began to explore a growing worship vehicle called "Drama Ministry". He enlisted the help of John "Mack" McCarthy and Ruth Anne Kuhn, both of whom had been involved with him in community theater. Ron and Bonnie Beiswenger, former members of our church, also showed interest and were also included in that first group. Sarah Tabbitas (Leathersich) came "on board" around the same time. These six people have been and continue to be the "core group" of the BUM Players to this very day. Now, as always, our main thrust has been to glorify God and give thanks to Him as we share our gifts which He has given us.

Brief history of the BUM Players:

• 1990: Birth of BUM Players; First drama performed during worship of Laity Sunday in October.
   
• 1991: Because of the success and enjoyment by the congregation of our first attempt, our second drama was performed in place of sermon for Palm Sunday. This became a "tradition" for the next seven years. In other words, we did two short dramas a year-one on Laity Sunday and one on Palm Sunday. Some of the more memorable dramas have been: "The Other Carpenter", "The Sobbing Stone", "The Floundering Church", "The Trial of Jess Goodenough", "Soldiers and Souls" and "The Key".
   
• 1992: The first ideas of a dinner-theater fund-raising opportunity were explored. We discovered that our program was too young to be supported by enough people to make such a dream feasible at that time.
   
• 1997: A big year for the group! Because of a program entitled "Share Your Talents", which was designed for all church members to share their particular gifts to help the church out of a bit of a financial crunch, our idea of a dinner-theater was resurrected in a scaled-down version as dessert-theater. We committed ourselves to building a stage in the Fellowship Hall, presenting a full-length comedy, and inviting the community. This served three main purposes: as outreach in bringing others into our church, as financial in allowing us to contribute to the "wish list" of church programming, and in allowing us a full outlet for our theatrical talents. The first play, "Scrambled Eggs", was a huge success and led to this becoming an annual event. Subsequent plays have been: "Aaron Slick from Punkin Crick", "The Meddlesome Maid", "Look Who's Laughing", and "More Than Meets the Eye". In April, 2002, the BUM Players will present Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple". We look forward to the challenge of doing such a well-known comedy. Also in 1997, during Laity Sunday, the BUM Players presented the "World Premier" of the original play written by Gary Thomas. Entitled "Soldiers and Souls", it was about soldiers discovering God in the midst of the horrors of the Vietnam War.
   
• 1998: This year saw the growth of our "Drama Worship" from a couple times a year to the introduction of a more regular "mini-drama" (around 5 minute vignettes) as the introduction of the pastor's sermon themes. The first occurrence of these was during our church-wide 50-Day Spiritual Adventure entitled "The Church You've Always Longed For".
   
• 2001: This year has seen further changes in format. Pastor Theva's desire to foster the promotion of small groups within the church has led to the BUM Players being made responsible for an entire service once every three months in which they will revert to their sermon-replacing dramas rather than their theme-introducing mini-dramas. This will likely produce challenges, but, with God's help, challenges we look forward to conquering!
   
• October, 2003: Enlisted by the Brockport Kiwanis Club to assist in a fundraiser for them by performing an audience-participation murder mystery titled "Murder, Maestro, Please", by Penny Warner.
   
• October, 2004: As an annual event, we again performed an audience-participation murder mystery for the Brockport Kiwanis Club, but this one was written by the BUM Player's own Gary Thomas. And was titled "Mask Murder at Mack's".
   
• April, 2006: Neil Simon's "The Sunshine Boys".
   
• October - 2007: Brockport Kiwanis Club-sponsored audience-participation murder mystery. October 19 - 20 and October 26 - 27. All Shows at 7:30 PM. At A.D. Oliver Middle School "LGI" (Large Group Instruction Room - North Entrance), Brockport, NY.
   
• April - 2008: "Plausible Deniability". April 25 and 26. May 2 and 3.