Summer stock theater
Giffen organized a company for the Manhattan Beach, Denver, with a cast list including: Anne Blancke, Kate Blancke, Alfred Burnham, Harry Corson Clarke, Henrietta Crosman, Josepha Crowell, Zula Hanes, William Ingersoll, John B. Maher, James F. Neill, and Mary Ryan as players, and with Alfred Fisher as stage director.
[4] Another company was placed in Salt Lake City in December 1894 under the management of T. Daniel Frawley, who later purchased the Neill-Giffen interests and moved the organization to San Francisco.
Blakemore, Anne Blancke, Kate Blancke, Fanny Burt, Madge Carr Cook, Harry Corson Clarke, Jean Coyne, Henrietta Crosman, Charles Dade, Lilian Dailey, George W. Denham, Harry Gibbs, William Ingersoll, Jane Kenmark, Howard Kyle, George W. Leslie, Phosa McAllister, Cara Morlan, Robert Morris, James F. Neill, Phyllis Rankin, and Fred Trader, as players, with Walter Clark Bellow as stage director.
In a 1955 article for the Princeton University Library Chronicle, the authors suggest it was 1897:Devotees of the straw hat circuit are usually under the impression that the summer theater movement originated when certain daft individuals began producing plays in barns.
In general, theatrical companies do not enjoy invariable successes, but widespread popularity has made summer theater a major industry, so that there is virtually no section of this country that does not boast at least one such dramatic group.
[8]Cecil B. DeMille, who acted in minor roles in the summer stock cast in 1905, would regularly send congratulatory telegrams to the theater on opening night.
Today in Hollywood I can hardly go anywhere without meeting one or more now rather famous people who either during that summer or at other times played in what all actors and actresses consider one of the greatest cradles of the drama in American history.
"[9] In the 1920s, summer stock expanded: The Muny, St. Louis, Missouri (1919) is the nation's oldest and largest outdoor musical theater; Manhattan Theatre Colony, first started near Peterborough, New Hampshire (1927) and moved to Ogunquit, Maine; Gretna Theatre, Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania (1927) as part of the Chautauqua movement;[10] the Cape Playhouse, Dennis, Massachusetts (1927); and the Berkshire Playhouse, Stockbridge, Massachusetts (1928).
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.
[15] 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.
Venues included the Beacham Theater in Orlando and the Royal Poinciana Playhouse in Palm Beach, Florida (closed since 2004)[16] where performers from Bob Cummings in 1958 to Arlene Francis (1961) and Richard Chamberlain (1966) appeared.
[20] Additionally, Fredric March, Minnie Maddern Fiske, Beulah Bondi, Edward G. Robinson (see photo above), and Sylvia Sidney were all stock cast members at one time.
While performing at the theater she received a telegram from Fred Zinnemann asking her to come to Hollywood to star in his film High Noon as Gary Cooper's wife.
She initially thought she had to decline because of her contract that lasted through the end of the summer, but her director at the theater quickly reminded her that she only had to give two-weeks notice and she could head to Hollywood.
[23] During Gypsy Rose Lee's engagement in Auntie Mame at the Warren theater, Erik Preminger wrote: "Working for him [John Kenley] was a joy.
"[24] Performers such as Paul Lynde,[25] Bill Bixby, Karen Morrow, Phyllis Diller, Andy Devine, Gordon MacRae[26] and Patrice Munsel starred in Kenley stock productions.
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.
[29] Another theater in the round, the Valley Forge Music Fair (which closed in 1996), in Devon, Pennsylvania, was opened in 1955 by Shelly Gross, Lee Guber and Frank Ford.
