Performers
Stars of Broadway, film, and television would regularly spend summers performing in stock. The Council of Stock Theatres (COST) negotiated a special contract with Actors Equity to cover the work of actors and stage managers.
John Kenley, an Ohio-based producer, ran his own summer stock circuit, Kenley Players, in Columbus, Dayton, Warren, the Carousel Theatre in Akron, and Canton, Ohio. Starting in 1958 performers such as Dan Dailey in Guys and Dolls, Barbara Eden in Lady in the Dark, and Howard Keel in Kismet appeared. Kenley cast "movie stars and television personalities" who were nationally known. During Gypsy Rose Lee's engagement in Auntie Mame at the Warren theatre, Erik Preminger wrote: "Working for him was a joy. Everything about his operation was first-class from the director and supporting cast he had assembled through the scenery, props, and costumes...He was attentive, supportive." Performers such as Paul Lynde, Bill Bixby, Karen Morrow, Phyllis Diller, Andy Devine, Gordon MacRae and Patrice Munsel starred in Kenley stock productions. Ethel Merman performed in Call Me Madam at the Kenley Players in 1968 (as well as appearing at the Parker Playhouse and Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami earlier that year).
The Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts opened in 1927 with The Guardsman, starring Basil Rathbone, and has continued through the 2009 season with Hunter Foster and Malcolm Gets.
The Ogunquit Playhouse, begun in 1933, attracted performers such as Maude Adams, Ethel Barrymore, and Laurette Taylor in the early years and more recently, Sally Struthers, Lucie Arnaz, and Lorenzo Lamas.
Performers such as Ginger Rogers, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Angela Lansbury, Bob Hope, Sergio Franchi, Zero Mostel, Ann Miller, Jane Powell, and Debbie Reynolds performed at the Cape Cod Music Circus and its sister theatre, the South Shore Music Circus.
Colleen Dewhurst wrote of her experiences in summer stock as a new actress: "My first professional jobs were in summer stock, in small, medium and large companies that presented ten plays in ten weeks from June until Labor Day...At that time, the core of each summer stock company was made up of a stage manager and six resident actors: a leading man and woman, a character man and woman, and an ingenue and a juvenile. In some cases, five or six of the summer plays would be 'star vehicles', featuring a familiar actor or actress."
Read more about this topic: Summer Stock Theatre
Famous quotes containing the word performers:
“... we performers are monsters. We are a totally different, far-out race of people. I totally and completely admit, with no qualms at all, my egomania, my selfishness, coupled with a really magnificent voice.”
—Leontyne Price (b. 1927)
“The reason I’m in this business, I assume all performers are—it’s “Look at me, Ma!” It’s acceptance, you know—”Look at me, Ma, look at me, Ma, look at me, Ma.” And if your mother watches, you’ll show off till you’re exhausted; but if your mother goes, Ptshew!”
—Lenny Bruce (1925–1966)