Theater Credits / The Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachsetts

Mel Ferrer's theatrical ambitions began at The Cape Playhouse in Dennis, Massachusetts, where he worked as a property boy and truck driver during the impressionable summers of 1934 and 1935.  The experience deeply effected the rather romantically inclined teenager and prompted him to join the Intime Theatre group at Princeton University the following Fall. Although he was still a student at Canterbury Preparatory School when he began working in Dennis, he was living nearby both summers as his Mother had selected Cape Cod to relocate the family in order to escape the oppressive heat of New York City.

The Cape Playhouse is America's oldest professional Summer theater and is often called "the Birthplace of the Stars." It was begun in 1927 when Californian Raymond Moore realized a personal dream to create a seasonal theater that would bring Broadway to Cape Cod. Moore purchased a Unitarian meeting house, had it moved to over three acres of lush land located on Kings Highway in Dennis, Massachusetts and reconverted it into a theater using the pews as seats for the audience. The Playhouse officially opened on July 4, 1927 with a production of "The Guardsmen" starring Basil Rathbone, and it has been active ever since. Almost every important stage star has appeared at the Playhouse, and over the years major actors began their careers there, including Humphrey Bogart, Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Gertrude Lawrence and Gregory Peck, who would later start the La Jolla Playhouse with Mel Ferrer in 1947. It seems fairly safe to assume that many of Peck and Ferrer's La Jolla plans along with the whole Summer theater concept borrowed heavily from their mutual experiences at the Cape Playhouse.

Cape Playhouse

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