Submitted by Dic Wheeler
(April 12, 2025) — Oddfellows Playhouse, Connecticut’s oldest youth theater, will celebrate its 50th birthday over the Independence Day weekend at its Middletown theater. Generations of former students, parents, staff, teaching artists and volunteers will come together in a weekend of activities and events to celebrate the organization’s ongoing service to young people through high quality performing arts instruction in a fun, safe, accessible and affordable environment.
Every year 1500 kids and young adults participate in Oddfellows programs, learning and performing theater, circus, dance, music and visual arts. Staff and teaching artists are professionals with proven expertise working with young people and producing the highest quality and most imaginative theater.
Started in 1975 by a small group of Wesleyan University students, Oddfellows is now a Middletown institution, committed to providing high-quality theater by and for young people of all backgrounds.
Beginning Friday, July 4, 2025 alumni, family and friends will arrive in Middletown to gather and renew old friendships. Saturday will provide a full day of events at the Playhouse spilling out to the greater downtown area and include tours, games, show reenactments, performances, improvisation, a giant cake, a group photo and the premiere screening of a brand new documentary about the first fifty years of Oddfellows Playhouse.
The celebration will continue in the evening as members of the different Oddfellows eras assemble for an Open Mike Cabaret followed by dancing. On Sunday, old and new friends will connect and enjoy free time together, including a special Sunday morning event celebrating the founding and first few years of the Playhouse. To find out more about the festivities, email info@oddfellows.org, call (860) 347-6143 or go to www.oddfellows.org.
Oddfellows Playhouse has played a unique role in Middletown for the past half century, with signature programs such as the Children’s Circus of Middletown, Teen Repertory Company, and the Neighborhood Troupes Program, which serves young people living in Public Housing. The Playhouse’s mission states: We believe that access to high-quality arts experiences is a fundamental right. Throughout its history, Oddfellows has remained committed to artistic excellence and social change.
The Playhouse’s mission has three parts: 1) an artistic dimension to provide high-quality theater by and for young people; 2) an educational dimension to promote the growth of young people–in skills, knowledge, and self-confidence–through the performing arts; and 3) a social action dimension to offer opportunities especially to underserved and at-risk youngsters to promote the development of a genuinely multiracial, multicultural society. Individual Playhouse programs must address at least one of these broad goals; Playhouse activities as a whole must address all three.
Photos by William DeKine and Samantha Perrelli
Oddfellows Playhouse is located at 128 Washington Street in Middletown. Playhouse programs are made possible by generous support from the City of Middletown, Connecticut Office of the Arts/DECD, The Fund for Greater Hartford, Middletown Commission on the Arts, Middlesex United Way, Community Foundation of Middlesex County, Liberty Bank Foundation, American Savings Foundation, CHEFA, Middletown Youth Services Bureau, State of Connecticut Judicial Branch (Youth Violence Prevention), American Rescue Plan Act, National Endowment for the Arts, New England Foundation for the Arts, Middletown Health Department, George and Grace Long Foundation, and many generous individual donors.
