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The Scranton Public Theatre was founded in the Fall of 1978. Dedicated to the professional development of the arts in Northeastern PA, the theatre\u2019s history is trumpeted by a major summertime theatre festival, acclaimed productions dedicated to the telling of the region\u2019s great history, new playwrights projects for established and aspiring writers, as well as successful productions in Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Harrisburg, PA, and the Pocono Mountains. Scranton Public Theatre programs have played in almost every senior high school, elementary school, college, and university in a seven county area of NEPA. Along the way, the theatre has worked with Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning writers Jason Miller, \u201cThat Championship Season\u201d, Stephen Karam, \u201cThe Humanz\u201d, and Frank McCourt, \u201cAngela\u2019s Ashes\u201d.<\/p>\n
In 1991-1992, the theatre produced, in courtroom #253 of Philadelphia\u2019s City Hall, a production of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee\u2019s famous play \u201cInherit the Wind\u201d, starring Oscar nominated actor Jason Miller (The Exorcist) and noted author and actor Malachy McCourt. The play was named \u201cbest play of the year\u201d by the Philadelphia drama critics and ran for 6 months. Both Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee served as consultants for the show. Jason Miller also served as the theatre\u2019s artistic director for 16 years until his untimely death in 2001.<\/p>\n
Recently, the theatre has devoted a great deal of attention to educational programs in high schools and to the development of new works. Tom Flannery\u2019s \u201cThe Last Thoughts of Gino Merli\u201d is one of these plays and tens of thousands of people have seen it.<\/p>\n
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Notable Highlights<\/h1>\n
<\/span><\/p>\n In the spring of 1996, \u201cThe Appointment\u201d, a 30 minute play concerning positive interaction for physicians office staffs and patients with disabilities was broadcast on public television WVIA throughout the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It was written and produced by Scranton Public Theatre, Allied Services, and the PA Developmental Disabilities Planning Council.<\/span><\/p>\n The Children\u2019s Theatre Repertory of Northeast PA was the first children\u2019s theatre touring company in PA\u2019s Northeast Region. Theatre summer camps for students were a regular part of SPT\u2019s programming for two decades.<\/p>\n In 1982, SPT became the first theatre in our region\u2019s history to pay its actors, contracting many Actor\u2019s Equity and non-Equity performers over the years.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Scranton Public Theatre also produced many plays that highlighted the rich history of NEPA.<\/p>\n They included:<\/p>\n \u201cNobody Hears a Broken Drum\u201d<\/strong> by Tony Award Winner Jason Miller, an epic play about the Molly Maguires and the early history of the Anthracite Coal Industry.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n All three of these plays are part of \u201cAnthracite\u201d, an anthology of plays about the Anthracite Region, produced by Penn State professor Philip Mosley. They were published in 2006 by the University of Scranton Press.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe Fire Down Below\u201d<\/strong> by Jack McDonough and Bob Shlesinger, which told the story of the hearings surrounding the Great Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902. The 2002 production celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Great Strike and was performed in the actual courtroom where the hearings took place. The play was a great success and was later performed at the Scranton Cultural Center and the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre, where thousands of students learned about this important part of Pennsylvania\u2019s history.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Festival was one of the premiere summertime cultural attractions for 21 years in the NEPA Region. Later on, it became known as the Jason Miller Summer Theatre Festival. The Theatre Festival began at the Montage Ski Area in 1987 under a 250-seat state of the art theatrical tent. Later on, it grew into 2 facilities, one located in Lackawanna County\u2019s McDade Park and the other at the Hanlon\u2019s Grove Amphitheatre in Scranton\u2019s Nay Aug Park. A flood destroyed the tent in McDade Park in the warehouse where it was stored in 2006 and a severe ice storm took down the facility in Nay Aug Park in 2007.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n These two \u201cActs of God\u201d literally ended a two-decade-long summertime attraction attended by thousands and thousands of people annually.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n McDade Park \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Nay Aug Park <\/p>\n Since 2008, the theatre continued to produce established works at theatrical spaces in the Scranton area while devoting a great deal of attention to educational programs in high schools and to the development of new plays.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Scranton Public Theatre also played a major role in the development of the Scranton Jazz Festival, a premiere musical event in August that features world-class jazz performers both from the region and from all over the world. The Festival began in 2005 and continues to the present.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Major jazz artists such as Stanley Clarke, The Manhattan Transfer, Blood Sweat and Tears, The Average White Band, Freddy Cole, Randy Brecker, Bucky and John Pizzarelli, Shemekia Copeland, Phil Woods, and Chuck Mangione to name a few, have played at the Scranton Jazz Festival.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In its 40 year history, the Theatre has reinvested well over $7 million dollars into the Northeast PA economy and over 650,000 people have seen our presentations whether they be on film, TV, or on the stage.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.3.2″ column_structure=”1_2,1_2″][et_pb_column _builder_version=”4.3.2″ type=”1_2″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”4.3.2″ src=”https:\/\/scrantonpublictheatre.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/117597205_293492975217225_8422159517447844460_n.jpg” hover_enabled=”0″ width=”408px” max_width=”408px” min_height=”630px” height=”630px” max_height=”1024px” align=”center”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column _builder_version=”4.3.2″ type=”1_2″][et_pb_image _builder_version=”4.3.2″ src=”https:\/\/scrantonpublictheatre.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/117896726_939072159930942_7784162854710729322_n.jpg” hover_enabled=”0″ width=”408px” max_width=”408px” min_height=”630px” height=”630px” align=”center”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" History of the Scranton Public Theatre The Scranton Public Theatre was founded in the Fall of 1978. Dedicated to the professional development of the arts in Northeastern PA, the theatre\u2019s history is trumpeted by a major summertime theatre festival, acclaimed productions dedicated to the telling of the region\u2019s great history, new playwrights projects for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-134","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scrantonpublictheatre.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scrantonpublictheatre.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scrantonpublictheatre.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scrantonpublictheatre.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scrantonpublictheatre.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=134"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/scrantonpublictheatre.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":393,"href":"https:\/\/scrantonpublictheatre.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/134\/revisions\/393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scrantonpublictheatre.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Heritage Plays<\/h1>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/scrantonpublictheatre.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/spt-coaltown-breaker.jpg\")
<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/scrantonpublictheatre.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/spt-the-fire-down-below-944x1024.jpg\")
\u201cCoal Town Breaker\u201d<\/strong> by Michael Cotter. Loosely based on the Sheppton Mine Disaster, which was the 9th biggest story in the world in 1963. The play was named the Official Bi-Centennial play for the State of PA in 1976.<\/span><\/p>\nThe Pennsylvania Summer Theatre Festival
1987-2007<\/h1>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/scrantonpublictheatre.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/montage-663x1024.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/scrantonpublictheatre.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/IMG_3547-3-1024x768.jpg\")
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1994-2006<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/scrantonpublictheatre.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/IMG_3548.jpg\")
\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
2004-2007<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n