The Summit Playhouse is a theater in

Summit, New Jersey Summit is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The city is located on a ridge in northern- central New Jersey, within the Raritan Valley and Rahway Valley regions in the New York metropolitan area. At the 2010 United Sta ...

and home to one of the oldest continuously operating amateur community theaters in the United States producing a new show each calendar season. In 2011, it presented '' Meet Me in St. Louis'', ''

Closer Than Ever ''Closer Than Ever'' is a musical revue in two acts, with words by Richard Maltby, Jr. and music by David Shire. The revue contains no dialogue, and Maltby and Shire have described this show as a "bookless book musical." The show was originally co ...

'', and ''

Speed the Plow ''Speed-the-Plow'' is a 1988 play by David Mamet that is a satirical dissection of the American movie business. As stated in ''The Producer's Perspective'', "this is a theme Mamet would revisit in his later films ''Wag the Dog'' (1997) and ''St ...

''.

History

The original stone Romanesque building designed by

Arthur Bates Jennings Arthur Bates Jennings FAIA (April 30, 1849 – March 30, 1927) was an American architect in practice in New York City from circa 1876 to 1919. Life and career Arthur Bates Jennings was born April 30, 1849 in North Brookfield, Massachusetts ...

was constructed in 1891 as the town's first library. A municipally-operated Summit Public Library was established in 1900, and in 1910 the library was moved to another building, leaving the Romanesque building under-utilized but still belonging to the library. In 1918, ''The Playhouse Association'' was founded as a World War I relief organization, and the theatrical group rented the empty older library from the Summit Library Association for one dollar a year for the next fifty years on condition that the group maintain the facility. In 1960, a 120-seat auditorium was added and the original 1891 structure was converted into a stage. The Summit Library Association officially deeded the building to the theater in 1968.

Directors

* Norman Lee Swartout (1918)

References

External links

Summit Playhouse
{{NRHP in Union County, New Jersey Library buildings completed in 1891 Theatres in New Jersey Buildings and structures in Union County, New Jersey Tourist attractions in Union County, New Jersey Summit, New Jersey Community theatre Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in New Jersey National Register of Historic Places in Union County, New Jersey 1891 establishments in New Jersey New Jersey Register of Historic Places