Goodspeed North Shore Music theatre of Wichita Pappermill PCLO
A LOT OF THEATRES IN CHICAGO ARE GREAT FOR WORK
if you buy the backstage actors handbook to regional theatre , which is an amazing book there are tons of places which you can look into and the whole book give you a rundown
"what? what is it? do i have something in my teeth? ok lets get this over with : no im not seasick,yes ive always been green, and no i didnt chew grass as a child "
Totem Pole Playhouse in Caledonia, Pennsylvania. For years, it was run by Jean Stapleton and her husband William Putch (she appeared in many of the productions.) The theatre and the housing are located in a beautiful state park with a river running through it--it's the most leisurely, serene atmosphere for a theatre I've ever seen. The productions (it's an Equity house) are fairly conventional, but each one is top-of-the-line, with amazing sets and marvellous personnel. And the rehearsal process is almost always free of ego and friction. How many theatres can make THAT claim?
I ask in all honesty/What would life be?/Without a song and a dance, what are we?/So I say "Thank you for the music/For giving it to me."
College students want to work where they can join Equity (and then half of them never work again, because they shouldn't have joined Equity so soon). It has very little to do with the quality of the work.
There's a difference between theatres with a lot of money and good theatres.
The Barn in Michigan is a terrible place to work--I can't even believe Equity allows it--like Bartending at intermission of the show you are in. How is that allowed by Equity? They hire people, and then they make you re-audition for each show when you get there. So you could end up parking cars all summer. And the shows are totally mediocre, anyway.
And the MUNY does big shows with close to zero artistic value, IMHO.
Also--summerstock theatres only operate in the summer. There are a lot of good ones out there, all over the country. A lot of the places these people are talking about operate year-round, or at least 9-10 months out of the year.
"Also--summerstock theatres only operate in the summer. There are a lot of good ones out there, all over the country. A lot of the places these people are talking about operate year-round, or at least 9-10 months out of the year."
- Some operate as both. In summer they are an in-residence summer stock company and in the spring and fall the theatre opens its doors to touring companies.
This may be a tad off the topic, but I must throw in a plug for the now-defunct St. John Terrell's Music Circus in Lambertville, NJ. It operated from 1949 - 1973, but the 50's were its heyday. Any musical that opened on Broadway would be performed there subsequent to its Broadway run and, to fill in the gaps, they went back to the 20s and 30s for their shows. How else could a 6-year-old kid in those days have seen Rio Rita, Hit the Deck, The Firefly, Roberta, The Boys from Syracuse, Desert Song, Merry Widow, The Student Prince, Countess Maritza, etc.? And this to fill in for newly-closed Broadway shows -- not only the South Pacifics and the Pajama Games, but rarities like Me and Juliet and By the Beautiful Sea? The leads were always Equity, usually having performed in the original runs in NYC. It was wonderful and I owe my passion for the musical theatre -- any variety -- to that very special. Time machine, anybody?
Have to agree that a theatre that presents shows year round is not a summer stock theatre.
Now Sacramento's Music Circus is summer stock because their summer productions are all self-produced in the round and is distinctly different from their "Broadway" season which is in a proscenium house and includes mostly tours. But Paper Mill - sorry - not a summer stock theatre. North Shore - sorry - not a summer stock theatre. You could hardly call Kansas City Starlight summer stock. 3 out of 5 shows each summer are tours generally. Another one is brought in from Atlanta or somewhere. They usually only produce 1 show. That does not cut the true definition of summer stock which is a single company, producing show after show on top of show. Usually only the leads change and they are working with the same ensemble.
That does not prevent Paper Mill, North Shore, and Starlight from being great theatres but they are hardly "summer stock" in the truest definition of the words.
Is there an online site and forum that covers summer theatre (and summer stock) exclusively?
I did a site search and an article about the Mountain Playhouse stated that it was one of "only 10 remaining resident summer stock theaters in the United States".
Is this true, are there only 10 ? I'm planning an X country road trip and would like to "hit" as many as possible.
I'm so glad this thread was resurrected! It's been great to here about all these theaters I didn't know existed. And I will pick up that Backstage guide, I think it could really help me out.