Peninsula Players
Encyclopedia
Peninsula Players is a summer theater
Summer stock theatre
Summer stock theatre is any theatre that presents stage productions only in the summer within the United States. The name combines both the seasonal time of year with the tradition of staging shows by a resident company, reusing stock scenery and costumes...

 program located in Fish Creek, Wisconsin
Fish Creek, Wisconsin
Fish Creek is an unincorporated community located in Door County, Wisconsin, United States, within the town of Gibraltar and is located on Highway 42 along Green Bay.-History:...

. Founded in 1935 by Richard and Caroline Fisher, it is known as "America's Oldest Professional Resident Summer Theatre."

History

The Players was founded in 1935 by the brother and sister team of Caroline and Richard Fisher in a garden behind the Bonnie Brook motel in Fish Creek, Wisconsin
Fish Creek, Wisconsin
Fish Creek is an unincorporated community located in Door County, Wisconsin, United States, within the town of Gibraltar and is located on Highway 42 along Green Bay.-History:...

. In 1937 the Fishers moved the newly-founded theater to the recently vacated 22 acres (89,030.9 m²) Wildwood Boys Camp, along the shores of Green Bay between the towns of Egg Harbor and Fish Creek. There they built a barn-like proscenium
Proscenium
A proscenium theatre is a theatre space whose primary feature is a large frame or arch , which is located at or near the front of the stage...

 stage house for an audience sitting under the stars. This is the present site of the theater.

In 1946 a canvas tent was erected over the audience to provide some shelter from inclement weather, and in 1957 a new audience pavilion
Pavilion (structure)
In architecture a pavilion has two main meanings.-Free-standing structure:Pavilion may refer to a free-standing structure sited a short distance from a main residence, whose architecture makes it an object of pleasure. Large or small, there is usually a connection with relaxation and pleasure in...

 with open sides was built as a permanent structure. In 1960, the Fishers sold the theater at public auction
Auction
An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...

, where it was purchased by Kenneth Carroad, a lawyer from New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. Carroad asked long-time “Player”, James B. McKenzie, to oversee business operations as producer. McKenzie accepted and in 1962 assisted in forming the Peninsula Players Theatre Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 created to operate the theater. In 1978 Carroad sold the property to the McKenzies, who maintained ownership until 1993, when the Peninsula Players Theatre Foundation purchased the property. McKenzie remained executive producer until his death in 2001. With Todd Schmidt as executive producer from 2001 through 2007, there were more improvements, such as a new theatre and stagehouse, improved actor housing, new public restroom facilities, expanded and upgraded rehearsal and storage areas, a computerized box office, and new gardens. In the fall of 2005 the Players ended their season early and demolition and construction began on a new stage house. The new stage house, which opened in the summer of 2006, has a full fly tower, a grass roof, cushioned seats, and solid walls that can be raised and lowered based on weather conditions. The new theater also has a radiant heated floor that allows performances well into October.

Actors at Peninsula Players are members of Actors' Equity, the union of professional actors and stage managers.
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