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About Us

Our Mission

“We provide an encouraging, supportive environment for actors and playwrights leading to excellent, creative, and thought-provoking performances that stimulate and educate Cape audiences of all ages.”

We bring people together in creative experiences.
10,000+ enjoy the entertaining and unique programs that Eventide Theatre Company brings to the community.

We multiply your dollars.
For over 20 years, we’ve been a financially sound non-profit organization with successful programs. We’ll continue to leverage your dollars by seeking matching funds from corporate and foundation grants.

50% of our income comes from individuals like you. 80 cents of every dollar go directly to fund creative theatre experiences for our children, our families, our neighbors and friends.

Set your own level of support. Thank You!

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Our History

The Gertrude Lawrence Stage, Eventide’s home, was built and named in 1954 in memory of famed stage actress Gertrude Lawrence. Lawrence, wife to Richard Aldrich, a producer/director of the Dennis Playhouse, lived in Dennis when not performing and was active around town and at the Dennis Union Church.

Read more about “Gertie” below

Eventide Theatre Company has sponsored issue-oriented cultural events and performances by local artists since former Dennis Union Church music director, Noel Tipton, founded the group in 1998. His goal was to bring concerts, plays and arts-related lectures to Dennis using the performance space, the Gertrude Lawrence Stage, at the Dennis Union Church Fellowship Hall.

Eventide Theatre Company has since become separate in all respects from the church as an incorporated non-profit 501(c)3 artistic company. The Company maintains a close relationship with and is indebted to the Dennis Union Church for allowing it to rent the theater space.

Eventide Theatre Company has, over the years, upgraded the stage curtains, the lighting and sound systems and recently teamed up with the Dennis Union Church to purchase comfortable upholstered armchairs for the Fellowship Hall/Gertrude Lawrence Stage performances.

Gertrude Lawrence and the Gertrude Lawrence Stage

Gertrude Lawrence (nick-named “G”) was an English actress, singer, dancer and musical performer born on July 4, 1898 in the London borough of Southwark. In August of 1904 Gertrude and her family traveled to the Sussex coast on holiday and they attended a concert where the audience was urged to participate. With her mothers prompting she sang a song and was awarded a gold sovereign. This was her first public performance.

After receiving dance, elocution and the rudiments of acting lessons from Italia Conti, Gertrude went on to perform in Max Reinhardt’s The Miracle; Fifinella directed by Basil Dean; and Gerhart Hauptmann’s Hannele.

In early 1923 Noël Coward developed his first musical revue, London Calling!, specifically for Gertrude. Since that time a year did not pass where she was not entertaining audiences until her death in 1952.

In 1939 the pre-Broadway run of Skylark brought Gertrude to the Cape Playhouse. A year later she married the Playhouse producer Richard Aldrich. While in Dennis, Gertrude was enthusiastically involved in the Cape’s village life, theatrical life and charity. What was inside this mercurial, tireless pro may forever remain a mystery, for she was always the star, whether on stage or participating in Dennis Union Church fundraisers.

But the stage is ephemeral. Other than photographs and her portrait above the entrance door to our theater, it leaves too little record. Great performances remain only in the memories of those who witness them. They are unexplainable, and largely irretrievable. So now, because we do not see her old movies on TV (the screen could never capture her very special connection to the audiences) she is largely forgotten.

Her story was told in our theater on her memorial stage in the play “G” by Natalie Ross Miller in August 2002, and twice more in 2003 and 2005.

Notes taken from Natalie Ross Miller’s 2002 program notes for “G”

Went to see Assassins on Saturday night, though the venue is not large, the actors were able to take me away from the room and bring me on a wild ride through America's darker days. Absolutely fantastic show that brought life, and even some understanding, to those that sought to take drastic changes to our history

Rak’Nar

Eventide Theatre Company is a 501(c)3 independent theatre located in the heart of Dennis Village and is known for presenting  thought-provoking plays, concerts, lectures, and mixed media events. Annually Eventide hosts the Kaplan Playwriting/New Plays competition.