Friends of Summer Place Theatre-Front of House Team

We are excited to introduce a new way to get involved with Summer Place Theatre: Friends of Summer Place Theatre.

This new program is designed for people who want to support SPT in ways that match their interests, skills, and availability. Whether you want to volunteer your time, make a financial contribution, or do both, Friends of Summer Place Theatre offers meaningful ways to help strengthen our organization and support our future.

I've listed 20 spots needed, but the more the merrier!

The program was created to help us:

• Strengthen community involvement
• Increase volunteer engagement
• Expand fundraising capacity
• Create sustainable operational support
• Build long-term relationships with patrons and families

This program allows individuals to support SPT in ways that match their skills, interests, and availability.

Front of House Team

• Ushering
• Box office support
• Concessions

These could be done as a "one off" or multiple days. Ushers and Box Office would need to arrive about 45 minutes prior to a performance, Concessions would work intermission of the performance.

Show dates are Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm Sundays at 2:00 pm

Guys and Dolls: June 19th-28th

Rent: July 17th -August 2nd

• Lobby display setup

Lobby Display set up would be sometime between June 1st and June 19th for "Guys and Dolls" and Between June 29th and July 16th for Rent

Ensemble Friend

• Volunteer at least 10 hours per season
• Recognition in program (Friends List)
• Two Opening Night tickets for both shows

Spotlight Friend

• 25+ hours per season
• Program recognition
• Invitation to Friends appreciation event
• Early access to tickets (24-hour presale window)
• Four opening night tickets for both shows

Standing Ovation Friend

• 50+ hours per season
• Featured recognition
• Opening night invite (1 show)
• SPT Friends pin or badge
• Six Opening night tickets for both shows

About US:

The Summer Place, Inc. (or Summer Place Theatre as it has come to be known) got its start back in 1966 as a way to keep students active and their acting skills sharp over the summer months.

It was founded by Donald "Doc" Shanower, then Dean of Theatre at North Central College in 1966. 2016 was our 50th season, and we dedicated our shows to Doc. Sadly, we lost Doc in 2015, just shy of our big 50th anniversary. We miss you, and most of all we thank you for creating this long-lasting Naperville institution.

Our Mission Statement

The Summer Place, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit, volunteer-supported community theatre, based in the Naperville area, strives to provide professional quality year-round theatre arts entertainment. We are committed to providing:

A supportive and collaborative environment for artists;

High quality, culturally enriching entertainment to the community;

Educational opportunities for all ages through mentoring and performance based participation.

The Summer Place, Inc. gets funding through ticket sales, advertising sales, concessions proceeds, grants, and the generous donations of our patrons.

The bulk of our expenses go towards royalty fees, set building costs, and, depending on the production, costuming. To a far lesser extent we spend money on honorariums for our directors and musicians. Our actors do not get paid. For that matter, our actors don't pay us for the opportunity to act in our shows, although of late they have paid a script and costume fee to help defray those costs. Our producers, who are pulled from our Board of Directors, are not paid to produce the shows, nor are any of our Board Members or Officers paid for their service.

Summer Place is a Community Theater. It provides a great deal to Naperville: the opportunity to gather and create a work of art and to share that work with its citizens at a very low cost.

One of our largest supporters is Naperville itself. The Naperville Park District provides rooms for us to meet and rehearse, and Naperville School District 203 provides our theatre venue during the summer: Naperville Central High School Auditorium.