Barnstable Summer Family Theatre

A Short History of the Barnstable Summer Family Theatre

In 1985, there wasn’t any type of theatre experience for children and adults available in the Hyannis area. As coach of the Barnstable High School Drama Club for seven years, as well as director of the Victory Players theatre group at Our Lady of Victory in Centerville, John Sullivan thought that he could bring a shared experience of theatre to families, and have students of the Drama Club be able to run a theatre during the summer months. Through the generosity of Henry Morlock and the Barnstable Comedy Club, the Barnstable Summer Family Theater was born. Sullivan wanted to incorporate the word “Family” into the theater’s title to publicize just what type of theatre this was to be: produces by families for families.

The first season’s schedule was ambitious: three shows. However, when the final curtain closed in August, everyone realized that they wanted to do it again the next summer. That second summer something new was added. The BSFT, as it was now known, won Evey Awards (named for longtime theater writer Evelyn Lawson) for both of its productions that year, with The Point taking home five and Revenge of the Space Pandas two more. In the years since, the BSFT has won many more, including a special recognition in 1990 to Sullivan for his “contributions to family theater on Cape Cod.”

Because ever larger audiences were thronging to the BSFT’s productions, the Boston Globe took notice, mentioning in its 1987 summer preview that Cape Codders were looking forward to the BSFT’s summer season. Because of its increasing popularity, the BSFT needed a bigger space than the Comedy Club, and thanks to then-Superintendent of Schools Edward Tynan and the Barnstable School Committee, the Summer Family Theater moved to the Knight Hall at Barnstable High School.

The larger stage meant that the productions could grow bigger and bigger, meaning more kids and adults on stage. This steady growth in the scale of the shows and the size of the casts culminated in the production of Barnum in 1990, which had a cast of 225.

Because of the renovation of Barnstable High School, the Summer Family Theater had to go on hiatus during the summers of 1996 and 1997. However, in 1998, the BSFT burst back onto the summer theater scene with its biggest production yet, The Wizard of Oz, which boasted a cast of 350! Sold-out performances and excellent word-of-mouth have kept the BSFT running since.

In addition to its performances of traditional favorites, the BSFT is also known for its original plays and musicals that put a new and unique spin on familiar stories, such as The Point, Snow White, The Hobbit, The Princess and the Goblins, The Reluctant Dragon, Sleeping Beauty, and Bremen Town, all written by John Sullivan and various collaborators exclusively for the BSFT. This summer, the 25th anniversary of its first show, the BSFT will produce three new plays written for the theater, Jill and the Beanstalk, Robin Hood, and Goldilocks vs the Three Bears.

Since the summer of 2006, the BSFT has added free Shakespeare productions to its schedule. These productions, held in Hyannis’Aselton Park have become an integral part of the Harbor Your Arts Festival on the Haynnis Waterfront.

Many of the students who have helped the BSFT over the years have used their experience in the summer program as a springboard for their professional lives. Eden White, for example, was a BHS junior when Sullivan selected her to be the musical director of Sleeping Beauty. White led a pit band and orchestrated the score. Ms. White went on to be a musical director again, but this time it was for School House Rock on Broadway. Many other alumni of the BSFT have gone on to similar success in the arts thanks to the simple idea of families working together in the summer to produce a shared experience.