AFD Theatre History
The Arlington Friends of the Drama, now known as AFD Theatre, was
founded in 1923 and is one of the ten oldest continually operating
community theatre groups in the United
States. Incorporated as a
not-for-profit corporation in the early 1930s, Arlington
Friends of the Drama, Inc. outbid
the Odd Fellows and came in with the highest bid for the St. John's Episcopal Church building, now our
theatre. We bid $8,200. More recently - and at an expense far exceeding
its purchase price - our 194-seat theatre was extensively updated and made
handicap-accessible. With justified pride we can say that AFD
Theatre is among the finest area playhouses for actors, directors,
production designers and audiences to produce and enjoy live theatre.
Our first
major musical, Iolanthe, was performed in our 12th season (1935). We currently design and
produce a season of four shows every year,
usually including comedy, drama, a "smaller" musical and a major
musical. The regional and national awards garnered by our productions are
many, but we are most proud of the fact that year in and year out we entertain
thousands of people, encourage local development and appreciation of the
theatre arts, and provide a home for some of the most creative directors,
designers and performing artists in New England. On July 26th 2007 we began to add the new logo of AFD Theatre to our website,
anticipating the formal launch date of August 1, 2007, in time for our 85th
Season.
As we
advance in our own experience we have stepped up our commitment to developing
the next generation of theater artists and audiences. We are doing this
in several ways, among them: the selection of productions in which youth may
participate, both backstage and occasionally onstage; an annual scholarship donation
to a worthy student at Arlington
High School; providing
Students the opportunity to attend final rehearsals of our productions at no
charge.
