The Winnipesaukee Playhouse is a 200+ seat courtyard-style theater in Meredith, New Hampshire, United States, in the heart of New Hampshire's Lakes Region. The Playhouse produces both a professional summer stock season and a community theater season, and is arguably the only theater in the United States to do so. Between 2006 and 2019 the Winnipesaukee Playhouse received 87 New Hampshire Theater Awards,"Awards and Honors". Winnipesaukee Playhouse. Accessed September 7, 2025. more than any other theater in the state during this time period,"MVSB awards grant to Winnipesaukee Playhouse". The Citizen. August 16, 2009. Accessed January 22, 2010 and in 2009 it was selected by New Hampshire Magazine as the best professional theater in New Hampshire."2009 Best of NH". New Hampshire Magazine. Accessed January 21, 2010 In 2013 the Playhouse moved from Weirs Beach in Laconia to the former Annalee Dolls campus in Meredith. The new theater has 200 seats as well as support spaces such as offices, dressing rooms, and a lobby, which the previous theater did not have.
History The Winnipesaukee Playhouse was founded in 2004 by brother and sister Bryan Halperin and Lesley Pankhurst and their spouses, Johanna and Neil. They opened the Playhouse in the Alpenrose Plaza (the former Dexter Shoes outlet plaza) in the village of Weirs Beach in the city of Laconia, New Hampshire. The theater started with a professional summer stock season, and continued with community theater and children's theater during the rest of the year. In 2006 it became a non-profit organization."About & History". Winnipesaukee Playhouse. Accessed September 7, 2025
In 2008, Hidden Green LLC, investors in the Winnipesaukee Playhouse, purchased the Annalee Dolls factory site for $1.05 million. The Playhouse renovated this property to create a "Tanglewood type of setting" to perform theater and other endeavors in."Annalee property sold for playhouse". New Hampshire Business Review. February 1, 2008. Accessed January 17, 2010 The theater moved from its previous site in Weirs Beach to the site of Annalee's former gift shop in 2013.
As of 2012, the Winnipesaukee Playhouse had performed 91 plays, 45 of which were professional summer stock, with the rest being community theater or children's theater.Past Shows. Winnipesaukee Playhouse. Accessed September 7, 2025
New theater
The access to the Annalee Dolls campus allowed the Winnipesaukee Playhouse to greatly expand and create the first performing arts complex in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. The campus contains over of land dotted with seven buildings containing of space. The new campus offers a state-of-the-art theatre that can seat about 200 patrons, a summer theatre camp for students entering grades K–8, an outdoor amphitheater with performances available before select shows, and a brand-new menu. The entire project to create a performing arts campus cost roughly $4 million.Masek, Heidi. "Winnipesaukee Playhouse rolling forward". The Hippo. Accessed January 22, 2010 archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100304154330/https://hippopress.com/100121/theater.html |archive-date=<2010-03-04> |url-status=dead The new theater, with almost 200 seats, more than doubles the audience space that the previous theatre held (84 seats)."Matching Pledge Offered to Jumpstart Fundraising for Winni Playhouse Construction in Meredith". Broadway World. January 13, 2010. Accessed January 22, 2010
References
External links
Winnipesaukee Playhouse official site Current and upcoming performances