Elma Lewis Playhouse in the Park
Summer 2008: Every Tuesday at 10:30 am and 6:00 pm. Click here for the full season line-up.
For many park users and those who grew up around Franklin Park, the park is synonymous with "The Playhouse." For twelve years, from 1966 - 1978 Elma Lewis brought summer performances to Franklin Park and helped bring the park from neglect and disuse. Today, in response to huge community interest and to draw diverse Boston residents into the park, the Franklin Park Coalition has revived the Playhouse. For the last five years the City of Boston's portable ParkARTS stage has been brought to the park for concerts, theatre, and dance performances. This ambitious summer arts series has been possible with the involvemenet of experienced partners: the National Center of Afro-American Artists, First Night Boston's Summer Beat, and ParkARTS.
You can look forward to summer concerts - every Tuesday morning and evening throughout July and August. Morning shows target summer camps and youth programs but also bring elder groups to the park. All are invited to bring a picnic lunch and stay for the day. FPC's Summer Youth Crew members help direct groups to the site, show them a picnic spot afterwards and can be available to play games or lead a walk in the woods after the show.
Evening concerts are for everyone. Families bring a picnic basket and lawn chairs. Neighbors and friends make it a social evening. Performers are local favorites, like Ray Greene, Fulani Haynes, Andre Ward, and Valerie Stephens. Bookmark the Calendar of Events page - Summer 2008's shows will be posted sometime in May. Check out the program for 2007 to see the kind of great music and dancing you can look forward to experiencing this summer!
Thanks to Elma Lewis Playhouse in the Park donors: Anonymous, Boston Cultural Council, The Boston Foundation, Clipper Ship Foundation, Mabel Louise Riley Foundation, ParkARTS, Ratshesky Foundation, and many local park and arts supporters.
Playhouse History
Elma Lewis was a cultural icon in Boston's black community until her death in January 2004. The founder and director of The Elma Lewis School for Fine and Performing Arts in the 1950's, thousands of African American children and adults studied at the school until it closed in the 1980's. Miss Lewis, who helped start the Franklin Park Coalition, sought to make the park a community gathering place after years of neglect.
Miss Lewis and a group of students cleaned up the rat-infested, garbage-strewn area where Olmsted's Overlook Shelter had burned. They built the Playhouse stage amidst the stone ruins and set up chairs. Thus began a summer concert series that took place every night from July 4th to Labor Day for twelve years.
Local performers and national stars graced the Playhouse stage, offering drama, dance, music and poetry, all of the high caliber that Miss Lewis demanded. From Duke Ellington's 4th of July concerts to Olatunji and his African drums closing the season on Labor Day, from Billy Taylor and Odetta to the Boston Ballet, people in Boston were exposed to premier arts.
Playhouse Revival
Elma Lewis was adamant if the performance area is revitalized in her name, it must follow the artistic vision and standards of the original Playhouse in the Park. Ms. Lewis worked tirelessly to ensure that African-American children and community members receive disciplined, skilled artistic training and exposure to the most talented musicians and performers of the day. To carry on in her footsteps, Playhouse in the Park has been re-established as an exciting summer venue for multi-cultural performances. The first summers included gospel concerts, Commonwealth Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, children’s performances for summer camp groups, and theatre workshops for youth directed by Our Place Theatre in Roxbury. A jazz expo featuring Angela Bofill drew several thousand to Franklin Park in 2003. A summer Playhouse Reunion featured R & B star, the "clean up woman" Betty Wright, as well as drummers from Black Nativity and the Voices of Black Persuasion. Local and emerging young artists are featured each summer.
The Playhouse in the Park is a cultural partnership between the Franklin Park Coalition, the National Center of Afro-American Artists, and the Boston Parks & Recreation Department. First Night Boston's Summer Beat produces the summer season which includes five or more Tuesdays with a morning children's event and an evening show for everyone. The 2007 Playhouse summer season was made possible with generous support from ParkARTS, the Boston Cultural Council, the Riley Foundation, the Ratshesky Foundation, the Clipper Ship Foundation, an anonymous donor and many individual contributors to the Franklin Park Coalition. An exciting 2008 season with daytime and evening Tuesday performances is planned.
Today, a playhouse stage is brought in for performances and set up near the Overlook ruins. The Coalition would like to return the Playhouse stage to the scenic ruins Miss Lewis used. Summer arts programming, combined with masonry and landscape restoration, will revive this long-neglected area of the park.
How to Find the Playhouse
The Playhouse is located near the Playstead, the big baseball field where the festivals are held. You can find it between White Stadium and the rear entrance to the Zoo. It is in the "Valley Gates" section of the park, next to the old Overlook ruins, site of the original Playhouse. Go halfway along Circuit Drive, the main park road, and turn at the fork marked "Pierpont Road" that leads to the Zoo's Giraffe Entrance. You can park in the Valley Gates lot right on Circuit Drive, directly across from the golf course. It is an easy walk from the entrances at Seaver & Humboldt, Walnut Avenue, and Glen Road. See Park Directions and Map for more help.
