EntWork
For Early Career and Students in Live Entertainment

Theatres & Festivals

Directory of Summer Theatre

The listing below consists of professional theatres and theatre festivals in each US state that run through the summer months and have auditions and/or jobs posted on their site. Summer stock theatres and summer theatre festivals are excellent résumé builders for high school graduates, college and university students, and professionals who either want to work through the summer or add onto their résumé. A variety of paid and unpaid work is available, and apprenticeships and unpaid internships can be valuable experience for a first or second job after high school or your first couple of college years.* Note that some theatres and festivals may also audition and/or interview at various conferences or list openings on various call boards, though the web site may not note it. If a theatre has only one link in its listing, the page may have a combination of performance, technical, design, internship, and other work available on or through that page. Just because it says “work with us” or “auditions” in the URL doesn’t mean there may not be more to it.

Note, too, that web sites can change web masters, designers, platforms, organizational methods, etc. If a link is broken, please let me know, but also check the main web site for the company. You may have to do some hunting around, but opportunities can be found at the bottom of pages, under “about us”, “opportunities”, “work with us”, and a variety of other locations in a web site. If all else fails, search engines are your friend.

*Don’t work for free more than twice in this business. You’re worth more than that.

Organization

This page is broken down in 8 regions, New England, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Eastern Midwest, Western Midwest, South-Central, West, and Pacific. Please check each theatre's web site for audition and hiring information. URLs for most companies go to either their audition or job listing page. This does not mean both, as well as internships, are not available, so please check the company's site thoroughly before giving up. Note that the Mid-Atlantic region has the longest listing.

What is summer stock?

Put simply, summer stock theatres are theatres only open during the summer, and historically used stock sets, costumes, props, etc. Summer stock is a great way for students to utilize their schooling, learn from industry professionals, and earn some cash for the summer. The importance of summer stock work as experience and training for both undergraduate and graduate students cannot be overemphasized. Not only do you get to do the work you've been studying and training for, but you get to meet other professionals and sometimes work with some of the bigger names in the live entertainment world. While you will find summer stock theatres on this page, there are a myriad of other theatres that produce shows during the regular theatre season as well as summer shows.

Some of these were found using two lists at Cengage: Summer Professional Theatre Companies and Year-Round Professional Theatre Companies, as well as searching on Google. Some were found through the list of job fair list for SETC’s annual conferences.

NOTE: Links with a * beside them indicate a URL that might only work when companies have positions/auditions available.

New England

Mid-Atlantic

Southeast

South-Central

Midwest - East

Midwest - West

West

Pacific