Monday,
June 2, 2025
9:30am
Seventy years ago this month, central Ohio got its first professional theater, Playhouse on the Green. Our June exhibit looks back on the summer stock company.
Playhouse on the Green (POG) operated north of Worthington from 1955 through 1972 at the site of the current Nationwide Hotel and Conference Center, 100 Green Meadows Drive, Lewis Center. An article in the May 26, 1955 "Worthington News" detailed construction of the summer theater, which was slated to open June 21 on the grounds of the WRFD radio station. Worthington residents Tom L. Mitchell and John B. Wilbur, Jr. were in charge of construction, and Theodore Van Fossen, architect for Rush Creek Village, was the architectural designer.
The "News" article explained: "Like most new summer theatres opening in this company, Playhouse-on-the-Green will be a tent theatre with a central arena style stage. The tent itself will be 60 x 90 in size with a light brown top and brown and orange-red sidewalls. The heavy-duty canvas is flame and water resistant. Surrounding the central stage will be 11 rows of seats, each row elevated six inches higher than the one in front. The furthest seat is only 32’ from the stage. The majority of the seats will be colorful canvas deck chairs; others will consist of bleachers with backs. The construction work on the playhouse will include not only the tiering for the seats but the erection of a control building, work on dressing room accommodations, rest room, box office, concessions and parking space. A business office has been set up in the basement of the radio station, according to Joseph K. Weaver, general manager of Playhouse-on-the-Green." The tent theater seated 600.
The theater was managed by The Columbus Theatre Co., with a director and Equity actors from New York City supplemented by central Ohio actors.
An article in the February 22, 1995 "Columbus Dispatch," written by theater critic Michael Grossberg, reflected on the POG's founders, Joseph and Enid Weaver. "The Weavers moved from New York to Ohio in the fall of 1954 with $1,000, a few letters of introduction from New York theatrical professionals and a dream: to establish a regional theater that would entertain and challenge Columbus audiences with serious American dramas."
The article quoted Enid Weaver: "We settled on Columbus as a good place to start a professional, summer stock company because at that time Ohio State University had a very successful Stadium Theatre summer program…We figured that Columbus audiences were already used to summer theater-- and so it turned out to be."
Joseph Weaver said, "Playhouse on the Green had an informal country ambience…People enjoyed good theater in a setting where you wouldn't expect to find good theater." Weaver had died of cancer at age 69 on February 17, 1995.
POG opened in June 1955 with "The Moon Is Blue." The 1995 "Dispatch" article quotes Enid Weaver: "Our first show was actually pretty daring for its time because of the sexual content, but would be considered pretty tame now." The inaugural summer season of POG ran for 10 weeks, and in addition to "The Moon Is Blue," featured "The Rainmaker," "The Tender Trap," "Roy Meets Girl," "Angel Street," "Claudia," "Come Back, Little Sheba," "Oh, Men!, Oh Women!," "Dial M for Murder" and "The Four Poster."
