The Gallery Players was created in the late 1940s when a group of Hadassah women gathered to create a space where people of all religions and races could participate in theatre productions. This was a direct result of the casting policy of the foremost community theatre in Columbus at the time, Players Club Theater, which did not allow African Americans or Jews to participate. The initial efforts to start the organization garnered much support from the Jewish community as the drama group decided to produce works by Jewish playwrights or that chronicled the Jewish experience in some way. The R.G. Barry Corporation donated the top floor of its East Long Street factory building as a meeting and performance space. The drama group staged its first production in May of 1950. Eventually, the Jewish Community Center (JCC) offered its multi-purpose room as a space to stage future productions and the Gallery Players began reaching outside of the Jewish community to seek performers, directors, and other creatives to participate. This act made the Gallery Players the first community theater in Columbus to implement a casting policy that did not discriminate on basis or race, religion, or gender. As of 2018, the Gallery Players has run for 60 seasons. Performances have since outgrown the JCC’s original building and are now staged in the JCC’s Roth-Resler Theater on College Avenue in Columbus.