(SUMMIT, NJ) -- The Summit Playhouse is now accepting directors' submissions for their 2025–26 MainStage Season - submissions are due January 15, 2025. Directors may submit one play or musical proposal for consideration.
If you are a director with a play or musical to propose, please fill out this Director Submission Form and submit it, along with a resume, to the Selection Committee at [email protected].
Please keep in mind that The Summit Playhouse will only consider shows that have not been produced in the past 10 years. A list of past productions can be found here.
Directors of shows the Selection Committee wishes to consider further will be asked to schedule an interview to discuss their proposals and explain their vision for their submission.
If you have questions, please contact [email protected].
The Summit Playhouse, a non-profit community theatre, was founded in 1918 as a World War I relief organization. Since then, they have mounted over 300 productions and are one of the oldest continuously operating community theatres in the United States. They produce three Main Stage shows a year, with performances in November, February/March, and April/May. Kaleidoscope Youth Theatre presents a Junior production in December and July, a full-length musical every summer, and various workshops throughout the year.
Their community service includes a benefit performance of each of their regular plays, theater awards for Dramatic Arts students, and Summit community collaborations. Their Kaleidoscope productions have traveled to various outreach locations, including special education schools, nursing homes, and children's hospitals, to share their productions with those who cannot travel to see them.
They have their own theatre, off Springfield Avenue just west of the Summit business district, which is listed on the National Registry of Historic Buildings. The old stone part of the building was constructed in 1891 to house Summit's first library. At that time, the library was run by the Summit Library Association, a private, non-profit organization. In 1900, the City of Summit established a municipal library (the Summit Free Public Library), and took over day-to-day operation of the library; in 1910, the city constructed a new library building and abandoned the old building at 10 New England Avenue. It was standing empty when their founders began using it as a theatre in 1918. For the next 50 years, the Summit Playhouse Association rented it, for one dollar a year, from the Summit Library Association. During that time they maintained and improved the building, and in 1960 added a 120-seat auditorium and converted the original 1891 building into a stage. In 1968, the Summit Library Association, now essentially defunct, officially deeded the building -- its last remaining asset -- to the theater company.
