Middlesex County's Plays-in-the-Park is a unique partnership that represents better than 46 years of unparalleled government initiative, artistic excellence and community spirit. Forty-three years ago, a small group of devoted community theater volunteers enthusiastically sought a place to produce plays during the summer months. They contacted the Middlesex County Board of Chosen Freeholders in the hopes of finding financial support for their endeavors.

Although funds did not exist for the construction of a new theater building, there was money budgeted for a storage shed. A creative compromise was reached, allowing the shed to be used as a theater in the summer and for storage in the winter. A tree-lined grove in Roosevelt Park was chosen as the site and Plays-in-the-Park officially opened in 1963. Popularity grew, and eventually the shed became a permanent home with the addition of a scenic shop and dressing rooms. Attendance soared and by the mid-1970's more than 150,000 people came to the free theater each year, making Plays-in-the-Park an important part of summer in Middlesex County.

All seemed lost, however, when on July 24, 1975, a fire in an adjacent garbage can destroyed the wooden building, burning it to its concrete foundation. But theatrical tradition demands that the show must go on (in this case "Man of La Mancha") and so work began the very next day. Mobile trailers were brought in to finish the 1975 season. Eventually County funds were met by dollars from the Green Acres Commission and the new Roosevelt Park Amphitheater opened in 1978.

Since then it is estimated that more than 1 million people have attended performances of Plays-in-the-Park. Our amphitheater features the latest lighting and sound equipment, and our shows are staffed by working professionals in the theater. Currently, we produce three full-scale Broadway-style musicals each summer (complete with a live Union orchestra), an indoor Children's Musical in the fall, and our continuing production of "JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT" each winter at the State Theatre in New Brunswick.