History
Montgomery Players
The third oldest community theater in Maryland (The Vagabond Players enters their 99th continual season as of September 2014 and the Potomac Playmakers in Hagerstown began in 1926), The Montgomery Players have been in existence since 1929, where they performed regularly in the Chevy Chase, Maryland area at Leland Junior High and the Landon School.
In 1962 the group relocated to Inverness Playhouse in North Bethesda, Maryland, where they spent the next ten years performing there. In 1972 The Montgomery Players once again moved and took up residence at 1201 Quince Orchard Boulevard in Gaithersburg, Maryland in a newly renovated 305-seat theater that they would call their own. This group, up through the merger in 1989, had produced 60 continuous seasons of community theater.
The Kensington/Garrett Players
The Garrett Park Players organization originated in 1949. In their early years they performed on rented stages in local schools and recreation centers throughout Montgomery County, Maryland. In 1960 they merged with the Kensington Players (who had been performing for several years at Kensington Junior High School). This combined group was known as the Kensington/Garret Players (K-G Players). In 1966 the group moved to a permanent residence at the Kensington Armory. When the State of Maryland closed down the Armory in 1974, the group moved to Quince Orchard Boulevard.
The Merger
In the ensuing years, the Montgomery Players and the K-G Players were both theaters who's attendance was in a slight decline. While sharing actors and technical personnel, they were not sharing in the same profits they once did. In May 1989, the Montgomery Players and the K-G Players decided to join forces in a business accord, since the majority of their theater talent were shared by the two companies, they decided to join forces in hopes of turning a profit, and the Montgomery Playhouse was born in the space in which the Montgomery Players were occupying.
In December 1999, the Montgomery Playhouse was forced to move from its home in Gaithersburg, Maryland to a temporary facility at the Shady Grove Middle School in Gaithersburg, Maryland. The final production at their facility, ironically, was Our Town.
Eighteen months later, The Montgomery Playhouse made an accord with the Asbury Methodist Village to perform their main stage productions at their new facility, a 300-seat theater. Soon after that, the City of Gaithersburg, recognizing the accomplishments by offering an additional venue to perform smaller, more intimate performance pieces at the newly renovated Gaithersburg Arts Barn, a 99-seat theater. To this date, the Montgomery Playhouse performs at both venues.
The Black Box New Play Festival
In November 1993, local actor and playwright Eric C. Peterson pitched an idea to the Montgomery Playhouse that it needed to foster and develop young, talented writers. As a member of The Writers Center in Bethesda, MD, the idea was to foster a relationship between the two organizations to help local writers get their works seen. Unfortunately, the connection between The Writers Center and The Montgomery Playhouse never did achieve its full potential. However, from this meeting, the Black Box New Play Festival was born.
This short play [2] festival was designed to encourage writers to submit new work for stage presentation. The winners of this festival would represent The Montgomery Playhouse in regional and national competitions. The works of local and nationally notable writers, such as John Morogiello and Mark Scharf have been showcased in these festivals. The festival remains a summer staple to Montgomery Playhouse's bill of fare to this day, performing in the Arts Barn in the Kentlands, Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Kensington is a town in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. The population was 2,213 at the 2010 United States Census. Greater Kensington encompasses the entire 20895 ZIP code, with a population of 19,054.
Darnestown is a United States census-designated place (CDP) and an unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland. The CDP is 17.70 square miles (45.8 km2) with the Potomac River as its southern border and the Muddy Branch as much of its eastern border. Seneca Creek borders portions of its north and west sides. The Travilah, North Potomac, and Germantown census-designated places are adjacent to it, as is the city of Gaithersburg. Land area for the CDP is 16.39 square miles (42.4 km2). The Darnestown CDP has a population of approximately 6,400, while the village of Darnestown is considerably smaller in size and population. Washington, D.C. is about 25 miles (40 km) away.
North Bethesda is an unincorporated, census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, located just north-west of the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C. Among its 14 neighborhoods, the centrally-located, urbanizing district of White Flint is the commercial and residential hub of North Bethesda. The Pike & Rose development and the Pike District is an initiative of Montgomery County to brand and market this region as "North Bethesda's Urban Core". The WMATA White Flint metro station and Grosvenor-Strathmore metro station serve the region.
North Potomac is a census-designated place and unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It is located less than 5 miles (8.0 km) north of the Potomac River, and is about 20 miles (32 km) from Washington, D.C. It has a population of approximately 25,000.
Travilah is a United States census-designated place and an unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland. It is 17.28 square miles (44.8 km2) located along the north side of the Potomac River, and surrounded by the communities of Potomac, North Potomac, and Darnestown—all census-designated places. It has a population of nearly 12,000.
In theatre, a thrust stage is one that extends into the audience on three sides and is connected to the backstage area by its upstage end. A thrust has the benefit of greater intimacy between performers and the audience than a proscenium, while retaining the utility of a backstage area. Entrances onto a thrust are most readily made from backstage, although some theatres provide for performers to enter through the audience using vomitory entrances. A theatre in the round, exposed on all sides to the audience, is without a backstage and relies entirely on entrances in the auditorium or from under the stage.
Dinner theater is a form of entertainment that combines a restaurant meal with a staged play or musical. "Dinner and a show" can also refer to a restaurant meal in combination with live concert music, where patrons listen to a performance during a break in the meal. In the case of a theatrical performance, sometimes the play is incidental entertainment, secondary to the meal, in the style of a night club, or the play may be the main feature of the evening, with dinner less important or, in some cases, optional. Dinner theater requires the management of three distinct entities: a live theater, a restaurant and, usually, a bar.
Interstate 270 (I-270) is a 34.70-mile (55.84 km) auxiliary Interstate Highway in the U.S. state of Maryland that travels between I-495 just north of Bethesda in Montgomery County and I-70 in the city of Frederick in Frederick County. It consists of the 32.60-mile (52.46 km) mainline as well as a 2.10-mile (3.38 km) spur that provides access to and from southbound I-495. I-270 is known as the Washington National Pike, and makes up the easternmost stretch of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Highway. Most of the southern part of the route in Montgomery County passes through suburban areas around Rockville and Gaithersburg that are home to many biotech firms. This portion of I-270 is up to twelve lanes wide and consists of a local-express lane configuration as well as high-occupancy vehicle lanes that are in operation during peak travel times. North of the Gaithersburg area, the road continues through the northern part of Montgomery County, passing Germantown and Clarksburg as a six- to eight-lane highway with an HOV lane in the northbound direction only. North of here, I-270 continues through rural areas into Frederick County and toward the city of Frederick as a four-lane freeway.
Kentlands is a neighborhood of the U.S. city of Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Northwest High School (NWHS) is a public high school in Germantown, Maryland. It is part of the Montgomery County Public Schools public school system. As of 2019, its enrollment was around 2,650 students. It is one of two high schools in Germantown, the other being Seneca Valley High School, with which Northwest shares an athletic rivalry. The school also serves small sections of the cities of Gaithersburg and Darnestown.
Quince Orchard High School (QOHS), also known as Q.O. High School, is a secondary school located on Quince Orchard Road in the Quince Orchard neighborhood of Gaithersburg in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States.
As the new medium of cinema was beginning to replace theatre as a source of large-scale spectacle, the Little Theatre Movement developed in the United States around 1912. The Little Theatre Movement served to provide experimental centers for the dramatic arts, free from the standard production mechanisms used in prominent commercial theatres. In several large cities, beginning with Chicago, Boston, Seattle, and Detroit, companies formed to produce more intimate, non-commercial, non-profit-centered, and reform-minded entertainments.
Darkhorse Theater is a performing arts venue in Nashville, Tennessee, which hosts performances across different disciplines, including theater, music, and dance. Formerly a Presbyterian church, the facility seats 136 people.
Lakelands Park Middle School is a public middle school located in Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States. Managed by Montgomery County Public Schools, the school educates over 1,000 students in grades 6-8. The school was named after Lakelands Park, which is adjacent to the school. With its premises used regularly for community events, the school has a high local profile.
Maryland Route 119 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Also known as Great Seneca Highway, the highway runs 7.47 miles (12.02 km) from MD 28 in Rockville north to Middlebrook Road in Germantown. MD 119 is a four- to six-lane divided highway that connects several residential and commercial neighborhoods in Rockville, Gaithersburg, and Germantown. Great Seneca Highway was planned by Montgomery County in the late 1960s as a local relief route for traffic on parallel Interstate 270 (I-270) between the three communities. By the early 1980s, the highway had become controversial because it was proposed to pass through Seneca Creek State Park. A coalition of civic and environmental groups unsuccessfully pursued litigation to stop the highway. The National Park Service refused permission for the county to build the highway in 1985 but reversed itself two years later, by which time the first segment of the highway in Germantown was nearing completion. The Rockville–Gaithersburg section was completed in 1989 and the controversial segment through the state park was finished in 1990. Almost all of Great Seneca Highway became MD 119 in 1999.
Theatre in Pittsburgh has existed professionally since the early 1800s and has continued to expand, having emerged as an important cultural force in the city over the past several decades.
The Montgomery County Public Libraries (MCPL) is the public library system for residents of Montgomery County, Maryland. The system includes 21 publicly accessible branches and a public kiosk, as well as a branch in the Montgomery County Correctional facility.
Quince Orchard is a neighborhood of the U.S. city of Gaithersburg, Maryland, United States, located on the western outskirts of the city.
