Cape Cod Theatre Company, Home of the Harwich Junior Theatre Producing Artistic Director Nina Schuessler.
The Harwich Junior Theatre, a nationally recognized year-round center for theater arts education, has changed its name to the “Cape Cod Theatre Company, Home of the Harwich Junior Theatre.”
The non-profit organization established in 1951 is a center for theater arts education, outreach and entertainment for people of all ages.
“We need a bigger umbrella to really help the newer audiences understand that we are much more than just children performing,” said Nina Schuessler, the theater’s producing artistic director. “We needed a name that was big enough to encompass the sheer breadth of our offerings.”
The name has always been misleading and the theater believes it may have limited audience interest.
“I think it’s very confusing to newcomers coming to the Cape and tourists to have the “junior” just as the only part of our name,” Schuessler said. “Because they think it’s only children doing plays that are really intergenerational.”
The theater said the name change will help to broaden the theater’s offerings in the eyes of both summer residents along with the year-round community.
“Adults play adult roles. Children play childrens roles. Animals and vegetables can be any age,” Schuessler said. “But we really cast age appropriately and the “junior” really doesn’t serve us in today’s audiences.”
Schuessler said it was important that they still kept Harwich Junior Theatre as a part of the new name.
“It’s our root. It’s our legacy. We are very proud of it. We don’t want to lose it. It’s a nationally known name for our theatre,” she said. “We have an incredible reputation in the educational theater movement and we don’t want to lose touch with that.”
The theater draws an annual audience of more than 20,000 people for its 10 staged productions and just wrapped up its 64th summer season.
The “junior” was based on the Junior League of America which brought theater education to the country from England, according to Schuessler.
The theater was founded by Wheelock College drama teacher Betty Bobp.
Speak Your Mind