Maryland State Summer Theater - Olney Theatre
![[photo, Olney Theatre, Olney, Maryland]](/msa/mdmanual/01glance/symbols/images/i002125a.jpg)
Olney Theatre Center for the Arts
Olney-Sandy Spring Road (Route 108)
Olney, MD 20832
(301) 924-4485
(301) 924-3400 (box office)
web: www.olneytheatre.org/
Olney Theatre, Olney, Maryland. Photo by Eric Stocklin,
courtesy of Olney Theatre Center for the Arts.
The Olney Theatre became the State Summer Theater of Maryland in 1978 (Chapter 1003, Acts of 1978; Code State Government Article, sec. 13-309). Located in Montgomery County (12 miles from Washington, DC; 35 miles from Baltimore), the Olney Theatre is a nonprofit professional theater producing a seven-show season. Renovated in 1993, Olney Theatre then extended its season to year-round. Performances in the 2006 season include The Heiress, based on Henry James' novel, Washington Square; Anything Goes, music and lyrics by Cole Porter; Bernard Pomerance's The Elephant Man; Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler; and Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, music and lyrics by Jacques Brel. In the summer, the Olney Theater also hosts the Potomac Theatre Festival, an annual festival of political theater. Some 118,000 patrons attend the theater annually.
Opened in 1941, the 450-seat Olney Theatre hosts several community projects. These include the free Summer Shakespeare Festival and the National Players Touring Company, a classical touring group of young actors. Also at Olney is the Potomac Theatre Project of experimental and provocative plays, which will run from July into August 2006.
© Copyright Maryland State Archives