The Mobtown Players has its roots in The Johns Hopkins University. While attending JHU during the early nineties, which at the time had no real theatre program, Ryan Whinnem, Noel Schively, Bill Henry and Ruth Scrandis Henry were all participants in the Hopkins student theatre group, The Barnstormers. Whinnem was so anxious to do Shakespeare that he had gone as far as to start his own splinter group, the Hopkins Classic Players. They performed "Romeo and Juliet" in a breezeway on campus with a $100 budget. Whinnem figures $50 went for snacks.