September 2nd, 2025
What does it mean to be a summer stock theatre now? Weathervane Playhouse achieves that “Summer Magic” as Ohio’s longest running professional summer stock theatre.
What is Summer Stock?
Let’s first define the summer stock method by breaking down the term.
Summer: Productions during the warm summer months, from mid-May through mid-August, often utilizing the outdoors. (Weathervane was actually an outdoor theatre until 2010!) This is the most favorable time of the year to go out and catch a show–good weather, no school, and something for the whole family to enjoy!
Stock: Shows are staged by a resident company (the permanent actors and artists) and re-uses stock scenery, props, costumes, and actors all summer long. In order to be used and re-used, they must be creatively adjusted and adapted to fit multiple performances.
This method originated in the late 1800s at the Elitch Theatre in Denver, Colorado, which grew even more popular in the 1900s. Some of the most notable theatre companies, like The Muny, American Players Theatre, Timberlake Playhouse, and Berkshire Theatre Festival, are summer stock theatres!
Beginning over 50 years ago, Weathervane is still a classic theatre creating rich histories of Summer Magic.
What This Means at Weathervane Playhouse
What is this “Summer Magic” we speak of?
Summer Magic experienced at Weathervane is that moment in the chaos where things come together right in front of you. It’s the feeling the audience gets as they watch an actor transform and grow throughout the season.
Summer magic encapsulates what it means to be a traditional summer stock theatre, which requires its own sort of magic. And you’ll know it when you feel it.
Theatre at Weathervane creates meaningful bonds between the actors, the actors and production artists, and between the whole team and the theatregoers. Summer stock provides the chance for connection at many levels.
Although summer stock is a lot of work – a 7 to 8 hour rehearsal and a 3 hour performance in one day if they are doing multiple shows – actors note that the most fun part is being around everyone and exploring each city they travel to in their downtime.
How Does It Work?
Summer stock theatre favors lighter productions like comedies, musicals, and romances, though Weathervane also stages various dramas.
Some unforgettable ones include The Music Man, Kinky Boots, Billy Elliot The Musical, and Oklahoma!
The preparation for a summer’s worth of musicals and plays is key. This intense summer of shows requires thoughtful planning, including deciding which shows to put on, and then scheduling each actor’s rehearsals for each production. Holding auditions and casting one person for multiple shows. Setting up sets, audio, and lights for each performance, which must be done ahead of time with the small amount of time between each show.
Actors work morning and night, rehearsing and performing simultaneously, to transition from one show to the next. This tireless process requires much skill, and audience admiration. The next time you watch a summer stock season, just remember the time and dedication put in by the members of the group before you.
With an average of 5 productions a summer, transitioning from 5 to 7 to 4 productions over time, it is strenuous, but it is also highly rewarding.
Summer stock serves as a crash course for actors, also being described as a “training ground.” Many famous actors started their career in summer stock productions, creating a path for big stars. This is where they train hard and prove themselves.
However, summer stock isn’t the only thing Weathervane Playhouse does. Outside of the Summer season, theatre goes on!
In the off-season, Weathervane still hosts children’s theatre productions, concerts, rentals, and more.
How We Are Saving the Summer Stock Tradition
For young actors, the importance of the summer stock tradition remains a large one. To grow yourself and your career while making memories is the magic we hope to create.
However, summer stock has recently lessened, threatened by rising costs and donor decline, lack of attendance after COVID-19, the desire for new works in big cities, and the competitive ease of digital media.
Requiring lots of skills, time, and effort, summer stock actors have been known for unfair pay and poor treatment. This intense work environment causes a labor shortage in summer stock productions.
Despite the threat, Weathervane recognizes the importance of summer stock, and therefore, the necessary changes to be made in theatrical traditions to accommodate for today’s hardships.
We work hard to revitalize what it means to be a summer stock theatre and defy expectations of modern production. While developing better work environments, fair wages, and ensuring the wellbeing of actors and keeping them energized, we are devoted to having fun and safely keeping the tradition alive.
Finishing our 57th season of summer stock theatre (299 productions in total!), make sure you join us in celebrating, supporting, and enjoying our wonderful stock actors, sets, and shows.
