Are you looking for your next weekend getaway? We love summer theater festivals for their rotating rep of high-level productions—think classics, family musicals, and hot new works—and for their scenic small-town surroundings. Whether you’ve flocked to a fest every summer since childhood or are looking for a new experience, here are nine amazing destination theater festivals across the country.
American Players (Spring Green, Wis.)
“Come play in the woods” with this Spring Green, Wis., theater company, which produces eight plays in rotating rep from June through October each year. The company is situated on over 100 acres of beautiful Wisconsin land, and audiences enjoy world-class works from the 1148-seat outdoor amphitheater or APT’s intimate indoor space. This year, make the trip for plays including “The Island,” written by Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona, and the beloved Noël Coward comedy “Private Lives.”
Barrington Stage Company (Pittsfield, Mass.)
One of many theatrical draws to Massachusetts’ Berkshires, BSC’s season covers the summer months (May through October) with a full season of new plays, classics, hit musicals and events. Barrington’s recently launched musical theater conservatory program allows emerging performers to connect with the profession and gain real-world training and experience, and the New Works Initiative gives playwrights, composers, and lyricists years of support in developing new projects. This summer, check out “Shrek the Musical” July 22–Aug. 9, or folk-pop musical “A Little More Alive“ July 18–Aug. 8. (Guess what else started at Barrington? The currently-running Broadway revival of “On The Town”!)
Chautauqua Theater Company (Chautauqua, N.Y.)
Dubbed “world class theater in America’s best small town,” this southwestern New York company produces a killer summer season as an annual resident of the Chautauqua Institution. Fourteen emerging actors (as well as four designers and one director) settle in the lakeside community each year as part of the Chautauqua conservatory, joining scores of established artists for training and performance opportunities that create a bridge into the profession. This year’s offerings include Lynn Nottage’s “Intimate Apparel” and American classic “Our Town.”
Contemporary American Theater Festival (Shepherdstown, W.Va)
This exciting summer festival develops “America’s newest plays in West Virginia’s oldest town,” performing contemporary works on the campus of Shepherd University in 250-year-old Shepherdstown, W.Va. More than 100 new plays have been produced in the company’s 25 seasons, including 40 world premieres from American playwrights. This summer’s programming includes Barbara Hammond’s commissioned play “We Are Pussy Riot” about the young Russian activists who made history in 2012, and Sheila Callaghan’s dark, fashion-world centered comedy “Everything You Touch.”
Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (Cold Spring, N.Y.)
New Yorkers need nothing more than a Metro North ticket to reach this scenic outdoor festival, located a mere 90 minutes away in beautiful Cold Spring, N.Y. Audiences cozy up under the festival’s iconic big white tent to enjoy classics like “The Winter’s Tale” and “The Arabian Nights,” set against the (real-life) sunset over the Hudson Valley.
Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Ashland, Ore.)
Possibly the best-known theater festival in the country, Oregon Shakes runs most of the year (February through November) on indoor and outdoor stages in Ashland, Ore. Thousands make the westward pilgrimage each summer for some of the country’s best theater. The 2015 season brings eleven productions of new and classical works including “Guys and Dolls,” “The Count of Monte Cristo,” and “The Happiest Song Plays Last.”
Shakespeare & Company (Lenox, Mass.)
Another Berkshires getaway, this major summer Shakespeare festival is also a respected educational center with several modes of training from weekend intensives and a semester-long conservatory. The company has earned its high reputation; more than 60,000 patrons will travel to Lenox this year for familiar works and new plays, including “Henry V,” “The Comedy of Errors,” and the world premiere “Mother of the Maid,” a comedy from the perspective of Joan of Arc’s matriarch.
Westport Country Playhouse (Westport, Conn.)
Another Metro North day-trip for New Yorkers, the Westport Country Playhouse produces five works from April through November each year. Artistic Director Mark Lamos aims to inspire Westport-area audiences with a season of provocative works from great playwrights, including this year’s world premiere of “Love and Money” from A.R. Gurney, co-produced with New York’s Signature Theatre and running from July 21–Aug. 8.
Williamstown Theatre Festival (Williamstown, Mass.)
This behemoth festival puts scores of the nation’s best-known actors on stage every summer in the Berkshires, and offers top-level training and apprenticeships for artists of all kinds. Tucked away on the campus of Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., the Tony Award-winning festival’s 2015 season features Audra McDonald and Will Swenson in “A Moon for the Misbegotten,” and icons like Blair Underwood, Cynthia Nixon, and Eric Bogosian in a variety of groundbreaking new plays including the World Premiere of a lost work from famed playwright William Inge, starring Kyra Sedgwick.
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