Bremerton Community Theatre started life as part of a drama program intended to put a little meaning into the lives of the crowd of war-workers drawn to the Navy Yard during the war. The City of Bremerton had expanded from about 15,000 population in 1939 to an estimated 75,000 by 1943. This was a small town with lots of strangers, living in make-shift quarters. Many became homesick, or bored, and started to wander back home. The federal government allotted money to cities like Bremerton to pay for recreation programs - anything to keep the war workers busy and on the job. Some of that money was allocated to the City Park and Recreation Department for an amateur drama program, and a drama director was hired.