Surfside History
SURFSIDE PLAYHOUSE
A Little History
- In April of 1959, a dynamic and excited group of erstwhile Thespians presented its plans for a live theatre in Brevard County. They called themselves The Surfside Players of Cocoa Beach. The Players began implementing its plans, approved by city officials, civic groups and local residents.
- In May, 1959, their first production, The Moon is Blue was presented at the Cocoa Beach Fire House. In following years, the Players staged their shows at the fire house, in churches & motels, and even on the beach!
- On January 6, 1963, ground was broken for Surfside Playhouse at the corner of Fifth Street South and Brevard Avenue in Cocoa Beach. In April of 1963, the dream came true with the official opening of Surfside Playhouse.
- The theatre seats an audience of 250, is fully air-conditioned.
- The annual programs feature a variety of high quality performances ranging from light-hearted comedy to lilting musicals to riveting dramas.
- Several weekends during the year are available for special theatrical performances, which may be proposed to the Board of Governors. Usually these require very minimal tech and scenery, and rehearsals are conducted at a different location than the playhouse.
- A children's theatre group was officially formed in 1979 and has continued with the current class, known as the Surfside Youth Players. .
- The annual Playwriting Contest was founded in 2001 to offer local Brevard County playwrights an opportunity to present original full-length plays on Surfside's stage with talented actors and staff.
- Our playhouse currently hosts three productions per season by the Playwrights Workshop of Brevard, a troupe dedicated to helping new and established local playwrights improve their craft through feedback with Workshop members as well as a live audience. Each production normally debuts three new one-act plays.
- Our newest performing venture is the Fearless Improv Brigade, with classes in improvisational comedy taught semesterly by Mario Busacca since 2013. The thrill of brand-new theatrical stories, devised on the spot, is yours to experience from a seat in the house, OR standing on stage...
- A snack bar in the brightly decorated lobby serves as a source of revenue for the non-profit, 501(c)3 organization. The Players have also sponsored Jazz Festivals, Golf Tournaments, Barber Shop Quartets, special by-invitation performances for charity, surfing movies, celebrity auctions and yard sales as fund raisers. Additional support comes from matching grants and corporate & personal donations, assuring the facility of continued maintenance and upgrades.
- Surfside Players extends a warm welcome to aspiring thespians, seasoned performers, and to anyone with a love for the Theatre.
Our Past Seasons
2018-19 |
Blithe Spirit |
Young Frankenstein |
The Crucible |
Best Little Whorehouse in Texas |
Moon Over Buffalo |
Robin Hood fractured |
2017-2018 |
39 Steps |
Spamalot |
On Golden Pond |
Evita |
The Games Afoot |
The Wizard of Oz Fractured |
2016 - 2017 |
Extremities |
The Producers |
The Rainmaker |
South Pacific |
The Ritz |
Alice In Wonderland |
2015-2016 |
Noises Off! |
Steel Magnolias |
Miracle on 34th Street |
Guys and Dolls |
The Who's Tommy |
The Diary of Anne Frank |
2014-2015 |
Lend Me a Tenor |
Wait Until Dark |
A Christmas Story |
Gypsy |
Biloxi Blues |
Paint Your Wagon |
2013-2014 |
Five Women Wearing the Same Dress |
Nunsense II: The Second Coming |
Hello, Dolly! |
Love Letters |
To Kill a Mockingbird |
SHOUT! The Mod Musical |
2012-2013 |
You're a Good Man Charlie Brown |
The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 |
La Cage Aux Folles |
Same Time, Next Year |
Breaking Up is Hard to Do |
Love, Sex and the IRS |
'Night, Mother |
2011-2012 |
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof |
Dead Man's Cell Phone |
Compleat Works of Wlliam Shakespear |
Grease |
Rumors |
Rent |
2010-2011 |
Glengarry Glen Ross |
Funny Money |
Cats |
Chapter Two |
City of Angels |
Baby With the Bathwater |
Love Letters |
The Pillowman |
2009-2010 |
Harvey |
Fiddler on the Roof |
Prisoner of Second Avenue |
Hair |
Frost/Nixon |
Beyond Therapy |
Boy Gets Girl |
2008-2009 |
The Moon is Blue |
All My Sons |
The Odd Couple |
Oliver |
Sweet Charity |
The Actor's Nightmare |
Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You |
Rabbit Hole |
The Rocky Horror Show |
2007-2008 |
The Crucible |
The Mousetrap |
Man of La Mancha |
45 Seconds from Broadway |
Pirates of Penzance |
The Vagina Monologues |
Vampire Lesbians of Sodom |
2006-2007 |
Godspell |
The Foreigner |
The Gifts of the Magi |
The Seven Year Itch |
A Chorus Line |
Our Town |
Camp Creepy |
2005-2006 |
Murder Among Friends |
Urinetown The Musical |
Last of the Red Hot Lovers |
Annie Warbucks |
Run for Your Wife |
2004-2005 |
Plaza Suite |
Nuncrackers |
The Man Who Came to Dinner |
West Side Story |
Dial "M" for Murder |
2003-2004 |
The Lone Star Love Potion |
L'il Abner |
Steel Magnolias |
Evita |
Move Over, Mrs. Markham |
2002-2003 |
Into the Woods |
Lend Me a Tenor |
Babes in Toyland |
Let's Murder Marsha |
Nunsense II |
Black Comedy & The Real Inspector Hound |
2001-2002 |
Nunsense |
Noises Off |
Once Upon a Mattress |
The Star-Spangled Girl |
Witness for the Prosecution |
2000-2001 |
God's Favorite |
Don Juan in Chicago |
Annie |
Getting Away with Murder |
Victor/Victoria |
Communicating Doors |
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum |
1999-2000 |
Cactus Flower |
Dark of the Moon |
The Sound of Music |
Sylvia |
Cash on Delivery |
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat |
1998-1999 |
Brighton Beach Memoirs |
Who Goes Bare? |
Moon Over Buffalo |
H.M.S. Pinafore |
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest |
Funny Money |
The Secret Garden |
1997-1998 |
Crossing Delancey |
I Hate Hamlet |
Marvin's Room |
The Mikado |
A Streetcar Named Desire |
Everybody Loves Opal |
Oliver! |
1996-1997 |
The Best Man |
Cemetery Club |
Company |
Gypsy |
Out of Order |
Greater Tuna |
Camelot |
1995-1996 |
Charley's Aunt |
Pump Boys & Dinettes |
No Sex Please, We're British |
The Music Man |
Don't Dress for Dinner |
The Crucible |
Jesus Christ Superstar |
1994-1995 |
Arsenic and Old Lace |
Death Takes a Holiday |
Play It Again, Sam |
Can-Can |
Lost in Yonkers |
Twelve Angry Men |
City of Angels |
1993-1994 |
Lettice and Lovage |
Flowers for Algernon |
Bell, Book and Candle |
My Fair Lady |
Paint Your Wagon |
A Few Good Men |
The Heidi Chronicles |
1992-1993 |
Corpse |
To Kill a Mockingbird |
How the Other Half Loves |
The King and I |
Man of La Mancha |
Prelude to a Kiss |
Lend Me a Tenor |
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MISSION STATEMENT:
Surfside Players is a community theatre dedicated to the performing arts through productions, presentations, education and outreach.
SURFSIDE PLAYERS, INC. IS A 501 (c)(3) NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION SPONSORED IN PART BY: The Cocoa Beach Regional Chamber of Commerce, Brevard Business News, The Margaret Heins Foundation, and the Brevard County Board of County Commissioners through the Brevard Cultural Alliance.