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The best Summer Theatre in New England |
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The top 15 PlayhousesEach summer brings a new season of summer theatre. From the grassy hills of Vermont, New Hampshire and Western Massachusetts to Cape Cod, we can count on quality performances by established actors and promising newcomers. Whether the venue is located in a barn or in a playhouse by the Charles, the quality remains. This is the time of year, when part of Broadway takes a break and goes up North. |
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Massachusetts |
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The Cape PlayhouseCelebrating its 86th season, the Cape Playhouse is proud to be America's Oldest Professional Summer Theatre; it's today's theater in an historic venue. Raymond Moore spent several summers in Provincetown where he was involved in painting scenery, writing plays and acting in theatre there. His vision, however, was to have a theatre of his own, which would bring Broadway to Cape Cod. In 1927, he bought a 19th century former Unitarian Meeting House and converted it into a theatre. The Cape Playhouse has been kept true to its original structure - even the original pews still serve as seats. The opening performance on July 4, 1927 was The Guardsman, starring Basil Rathbone. Among the many whom made their professional stage debuts at the Cape Playhouse, you’ll find; Bette Davis (who first worked as an usher), Gregory Peck, Gertrude Lawrence, Lana Turner, Ginger Rogers, Humphrey Bogart, Tallulah Bankhead, Helen Hayes, Julie Harris, and Paulette Goddard, it's no wonder the Cape Playhouse is known as "The Birthplace of the Stars". The ultimate goal is to guarantee quality, professional entertainment in the form of great theatre. Curtain Up! | Upcoming shows in 2013:Sweet Charity - July 8– July 20 Hello, Dolly! - August 5 – August 17 |
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Gloucester Stage Company in GloucesterLocated 38 miles from Boston, the Gloucester Stage Company was co-founded in 1979 by Geoff Richon, Denny Blodgett, and award-winning playwright Israel Horovitz as a "safe harbor for playwrights and new plays". During its first twenty seasons the GSC successfully realized its mission with the production of more than 32 World premieres, 6 American premieres, and 17 New England premieres. Plays developed at the GSC have gone on to critical and popular acclaim on Broadway, off-Broadway, across the United States, and around the world. | Upcoming shows in 2013:Spring Awakening – June 20-July 14 |
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North Shore Music Theatre in BeverlyNorth Shore Music Theatre (NSMT) was first organized in 1954 by founders Stephan Slane, Managing Director, and Ruby Newman, Musical Director. NSMT opened as a part of a national circuit of summer stock theaters designed to present (rather than produce) touring packages of Broadway successes and star-centered comedies. | Upcoming shows 2013:Sound of music |
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Shakespeare and Company in LenoxEstablished in 1979 Shakespeare and Company in Lenox, is launching its 34th season in the culturally-rich Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts in Lenox, Shakespeare & Company aspires to create a theatre of unprecedented excellence rooted in the classical ideals of inquiry, balance, and harmony; a company that performs as the Elizabethans did — in love with poetry, physical prowess, and the mysteries of the universe. With a core of over 150 artists, the company performs Shakespeare, generating opportunities for collaboration between actors, directors, and designers of all races, nationalities, and backgrounds. Shakespeare & Company provides original, in-depth, classical training and performance methods. The company also develops and produces new plays of social and political significance. Shakespeare & Company's educational programs inspire a new generation of students and scholars to discover the resonance of Shakespeare's truths in the everyday world, demonstrating the influence that classical theatre can have within a community. | Upcoming Shows in 2013:Tina Packer PlayhouseMother Courage and Her Children - July 26 through August 25 Elayne P. Bernstein TheatreMaster Class – May 24 through August 18. |
New Hampshire |
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The Barnstormers in TamworthThe Barnstormers features Professional Summer theatre since 1931. There was an interruption during WWII, but after the war, the theatre came back, the actors and crew spent their days, as they do now, rehearsing and building one show and performing another in the evening. There are few, if any, theatres in the United States that still perform this way. The Barnstormers, almost from its inception, has been associated with Equity, the Actors Union, and was recognized as the oldest Equity theatre in the country under the same direction, until Francis Cleveland’s death in 1995. | 2013 schedule coming later |
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New London Barn Playhouse in New LondonThe New London Barn Playhouse is the oldest, continuously operating Summer Stock theater in New Hampshire, a distinction which has gained it inclusion in the state's Register of Historic Places. In the summer of 1933, Mrs. Josephine Etter Holmes, Chair of the Department of Speech at Mount Holyoke College, came to New London with four female students and, with the assistance of colleagues at Colby Junior College and male actors drawn from the community, established the New London Players of New Hampshire. | Upcoming Shows in 201356th Annual Straw Hat Revue – June 6-9 |
Maine |
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Hackmatack Playhouse in BerwickHackmatack Playhouse was founded in 1972 by S. Carleton Guptill. He envisioned a summer stock theatre that would showcase the talents of professional and developing thespians from the regional area. | Summer 2013 at Hackmatack PlayhouseThe Hound of the Baskervilles - June 21 to July 6 |
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Maine State Music Theatre in BrunswickVictoria Crandall, affectionately known as Vicki, opened her summer playhouse in the Pickard Theater on the Bowdoin College campus in 1959 with a production of The Song of Norway. It was an adventurous undertaking in many ways: Vicki was a woman working in a field dominated by men and she was producing nine shows, one per week, all with full sets, costumes and chorus. | Summer 2013 at the MSMTDream Girls –June 5-22 |
Vermont |
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Weston Playhouse in WestonAs the WPTC celebrates its 75th anniversary of ambitious theatre and community participation, it looks forward to an even more exciting future of artistic creation and performance. Vermont’s oldest professional theatre is a living testament to a community’s belief in the arts. In 1935, while the Great Depression was raging, Weston-born architect Raymond Austin was putting the finishing touches on a playhouse that one Boston Globe critic would dub “the most beautiful theatre in New England.” A former church renovated for the town’s dramatic club, the Weston Playhouse quickly attracted the attention of director Harlan Grant, who produced the theatre’s first summer stock season in 1937, featuring a young actor named Lloyd Bridges. | Summer 2013 at the Weston PlayhouseEducating Rita – June 25 – July 6 |
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Dorset Theatre Festival in Dorset On July 2, 1929, The Dorset Playhouse officially opened. In typical Vermont style, the building of this lovely theatre was a true community effort and included the use of three local barns in its construction! Since the 1930's, The Playhouse has served as a home to many including members of Fred and Pat Carmichael's beloved Caravan Theatre, the wonderful year round community theatre The Dorset Players, and since the 1970's the Dorset Theatre Festival [DTF] founded by Jill Charles and John Nassivera. | Upcoming Shows 10 2013Good People – June 20-July 7 |
Other Theatres by states |
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New Hampshire |
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Peterborough Players in Peterborough Established in 1933 |
Seacoast Repertory in Portsmouth Established 1988 |
Weathervane Theatre in WhitefieldWeathervane Theatre |
Maine |
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Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit Ogunquit Playhouse |
The Theatre at Monmouth in Monmouth The Theatre at Monmouth in Monmouth |
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