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Elma Lewis Playhouse in the Park

Thanks to all our audience members for a great summer season!

Come back in 2011!

Summer 2010 Season Program - Every Tuesday at 11:00 am and 6:00 pm.

July 13 - Opening Night

- 11am - Drums: Stephen O'Neal & IntaAfrika / Marcus Santos & Batukaxé

- 6pm - Jazz: Elán Trotman

July 20

- 11am - Stajez Dance Company

- 6pm - Latin Jazz: Mango Blue w/ Alex Alvear

July 27

- 11am - Hip Hop: OrigiNation

- 6pm - Boston Soul Revue

August 3

- 11am - Batons: Estrellas Tropicales

- 6pm - World Music: Zili Misik

August 10

- 11am - Dance: BalletRox

- 6pm - Kendrick Oliver & the New Life Jazz Orchestra

August 17 - A Wild Night in Franklin Park

- 10am - 2pm - Children's Festival

- 5-7pm - FREE Zoo Admission

- At Dusk (about 8pm - Movie Night: Michael Jackson's This Is It

Bring all your friends, a picnic supper and your lawn chairs!

For many park users 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 back 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 seven 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 involvement 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, 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.

Playhouse Revival

Elma Lewis was adamant that 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.

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 2009 Playhouse summer season was made possible with generous support from ParkARTS, the Boston Foundation, and an anonymous donor and many individual contributors to the Franklin Park Coalition. An exciting 2010 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, the 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.

Playhouse History

089_89 Elma Lewis was a cultural icon in Boston's black community until her death in January 2004. She was the founder and director of The Elma Lewis School for Fine and Performing Arts in the 1950s, where thousands of African American children and adults studied until it closed in the 1980s. 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.

Thanks to Elma Lewis Playhouse in the Park donors: an anonymous donor, ParkARTS, My Summer in the City / The Boston Foundation, Boston R.O.C.K.S., and many local park and arts supporters. The Playhouse is presented by the Franklin Park Coalition, First Night Boston, and the City of Boston's Parks Department & ParkARTS.