BACKSPACE: Places, everybody
Surry’s summer playhouse once drew chauffeur-driven patrons and notable actors like Henry Fonda
Actors rehearse a scene at the Surry Theatre Company in 1946. Photo courtesy of the Penobscot Marine Museum.
July 21, 2026
SURRY—In the summer of 1929 the Surry Theatre Company, composed of producers and actors from New York, presented their first play in the Surry Playhouse, a barn on Route 172 that had been converted to a theatre.
For 16 years, the Surry Playhouse held productions every summer, with a different play every week. Shows were often current Broadway hits or revivals of classics. Acting legends such as Henry Fonda, who was perhaps best known for his late-in-life role in On Golden Pond, as well as Joseph Cotton, a cast member in the iconic film Citizen Kane, were among the notable actors who starred in the company’s productions early in their careers. The Surry Theatre Company also conducted a summer acting school and apprentice program.
The theatre had 300 seats. Many well-to-do summer folk were among the theatre-goers, some arriving in chauffeur-driven cars and enjoying sitting around the open fireplace in the lobby or on the lawn before the play. Local people enjoyed the plays, too. A Surry resident remembers playing outside while waiting for the bell to ring, signaling that the unsold seats were available at half price.
This photo was taken in 1946, the year the theatre reopened following a hiatus during World War II. It advertised itself as “Air Cooled” and had a restaurant for a few years. The new company, with Charles O. Carey as producer, featured Broadway actors, including Edward Everett Horton, Barnard Hughes, and Mary Grace Canfield, and local youth also had roles in productions. The Surry Playhouse closed in 1953.
Today, Surry has New Surry Theatre , which was founded in 1972 by actor and director Bill Raiten. The theatre began as a school, with students coming from Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, and California. It even hosted exchanges between American and Soviet actors in the waning days of the Cold War.
—This article was adapted from a piece written by Kate Mroziki and Deb Benham of the Surry Historical Society, and provided to The Rising Tide by the Penobscot Marine Museum.
“BACKSPACE” is a partnership between the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport and The Rising Tide that showcases the unique coastal and maritime history of our towns in and around the Blue Hill Peninsula. For more information about the Penobscot Marine Museum, please visit their website.
