Paper Mill Playhouse
Entrance to the Paper Mill Playhouse.
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| Address | 22 Brookside Drive Millburn, New Jersey United States |
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| Coordinates | 40°43′40″N 74°18′33″W / 40.72778°N 74.30917°WCoordinates: 40°43′40″N 74°18′33″W / 40.72778°N 74.30917°W |
| Operator | Mark S. Hoebee |
| Type | Regional theater |
| Capacity | 1,200 |
| Opened | 1934 |
| Years active | 77 |
| Website | |
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Paper Mill Playhouse is a regional theater with approximately 1200 seats, located in Millburn, New Jersey. Due to its relatively close location to Manhattan, it draws from the pool of actors (and audience members) who live in New York City. Paper Mill was officially designated as the "State Theater of New Jersey". From 1971 to 2008, Paper Mill held the New Jersey Ballet as its resident ballet company, with the annual production of Nutcracker until the premiere 25th Anniversary tour of Les Misérables took up the ballet's performance slot. Mark S. Hoebee serves as the Artistic Director and Todd Schmidt serves as the Managing Director. In 2016, the playhouse received the Regional Theatre Tony Award.
In March 1795, Sam Campbell built The Thistle Paper Mill on land along a brook in the town of Millville, later renamed Millburn. Campbell ran his business for about 20 years until he was forced to close down due to a fire. The building remained vacant for several years and ownership changed several times. In the late 1870s, Diamond Mill Paper Company took over the property and used it for their paper making business until 1928.
Writer and performer Antoinette Scudder, along with actor and director Frank Carrington formed a partnership in the late 1920s to create their own theater. The eventually found the vacant mill, and spent many years working on it, turning it into a theater.
Another fire in 1980 changed the course of the theater, and it closed for rebuilding. On October 30, 1982, the Paper Mill reopened for their first theatrical production since the fire. This period of time became the focal point of a lawsuit between the theater and Millburn on whether or not they would be exempt from property taxes during the time the property was not in use.
Founded in 1934, Paper Mill Playhouse raised the curtain on its first performance with Gregorio Martinez Sierra’s The Kingdom of God on November 14, 1938. By the end of the first year, Carrington had coaxed entertainer Irene Castle out of retirement to make her dramatic debut in Noël Coward’s Shadow Play. The first few years featured a variety of classical and modern plays. By 1941, the Playhouse had begun to specialize in operettas, which it continued until the early 1950s.
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