Summer Stock Theatre - History

History

Summer stock started in 1919-1920s with four theatres: The Muny, St. Louis, Mo. (1919) is the nation's oldest and largest outdoor musical theatre; Manhattan Theatre Colony, first started near Peterborough, New Hampshire (1927) and moved to Ogunquit, Maine; the Cape Playhouse, Dennis, Massachusetts (1927); and the Berkshire Playhouse, Stockbridge, Massachusetts (1928). Many of the theatres of the heyday, the 1920s through the 1960s, were in New England. Also called the "straw hat circuit", theatres also were in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, among other states. (There had been earlier summer theatres: the Gardens Theatre, Denver (1890) and Lakewood Playhouse near Skowhegan, Maine (1901 for summer), but they were established stock theatres that had then been used as a summer venue.)

The structure was to present different plays in weekly or biweekly repertory, performed by a resident company, generally between June and September. The usual fare consisted of light comedies, romances, mysteries. The theatres were located in rural areas. Touring companies would carry hand props and costumes to each venue, where sound, lights and set would be awaiting them.

Summer stock provided a training ground for actors and great, inexpensive entertainment for vacationing East Coast urbanites. Craig Mamrick describes Louis Edmonds' early summer stock experience: "Louis spent the summer of 1949 working as part of the repertory company at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine...The Ogunquit Playhouse was affiliated with the Manhattan Theatre Colony, an apprentice program that hopeful actors could attend (paying $150 for the summer) to learn their craft and observe—and possibly work with—professionals. Such stage luminaries as Maude Adams, Ethel Barrymore, Lilian Gish, and Ruth Gordon had trod the boards here. Students took classes in acting, stagecraft, makeup, and voice, and if they were talented enough, they might be asked to appear in plays with the resident acting company." Additionally, many notable performers spent their summers on the circuit. Plays and musicals that had closed on Broadway would play the circuit. By 1950, there were 152 Equity companies, including the Ogunquit Playhouse and Skowhegan Playhouse in Maine; the Woodstock Playhouse in upstate New York; Falmouth Playhouse in Massachusetts (burned down in 1994); Priscilla Beach Theatre in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and the Bucks County Playhouse in New Hope (suburban Philadelphia), Pennsylvania (established in 1939). The Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut, since renovated with the support of Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, was also part of the summer stock circuit.

A similar circuit existed in Florida during the winter. Venues included the Royal Poinciana Playhouse, Palm Beach, Florida (closed since 2004) where performers from Bob Cummings in 1958 to Arlene Francis (1961) and Richard Chamberlain (1966) appeared.