The DC area's oldest youth-run theatre company

Wildwood Summer Theatre was founded in 1965 by a group of students from Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, Maryland. These theatrically minded students wanted to extend their high school musical experience into the summer. However, they were unable to find an adult sponsor, so they decided to strike out on their own. That summer, on a shoestring budget, and with little in the way of material supplies or support, they put on a production of Bye, Bye Birdie. The show was a rousing success, and WST was born. For the last 51 years, WST has presented at least one, and occasionally two musical productions, with the entire company aged 14 to 25.

SHOWS

Composers: Wildwood's favorite composer appears to be Stephen Sondheim. Over its history, Wildwood has produced five of his shows, many of them twice, for a total of eight productions. The runner up to this title is Stephen Schwartz, all because Wildwood produced four of his most popular shows over the course of just ten years (from 1986 to 1996).

Repeats: Wildwood has performed a number of shows multiple times, but never more than twice. Considering we never do a show more than once per twelve year period, the most a show could possibly have been done currently would be five times, but no show has come close to that. A total of nine shows share the title of being produced twice by Wildwood: A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (1968 & 2012), Guys and Dolls (1969 & 1992), West Side Story (1978 & 2002), The Pajama Game (1981, 2009), Grease (1987 & 2016), Merrily We Roll Along (1988 & 2010), You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (1991, 2021), A Chorus Line (1993, 2013), City of Angels (1997 & 2011). Please note, these records depend on wether on not you count the dozens of times a certain part of Kismet has been performed during Wildwood shows.

From Broadway to MoCo: For most of its history, the earliest Wildwood had performed a show following its Broadway opening was its first show, Bye Bye Birdie (1965), which was produced only five years after its Broadway opening in 1960. However, this record was eclipsed by The Lightning Thief (2022), which had its Broadway opening only 3 years earlier in 2019. Mercedes Blankenship, who directed WST’s The Lightning Thief, is also known for being a massive fan of Bye Bye Birdie, and considers it an incredible honor to have broken this record.

On the flip side of the coin, Wonderful Town (1990) and How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1998) were produced a full 37 years after the original 1953 and 1961 productions, respectively. This may or may not be the record, depending on whether or not Anything Goes (1982) is considered to be the same show it was in the 1930s, or rather a creation of 1962, when it was substantially re-written for revival. In addition, you may or may not wish to count WST's second production of Guys and Dolls (1999), having appeared 49 years after the Broadway original.

STAFF

Producer Records: The producer who holds the record for the most shows produced with WST is Mattia D'Affuso, who produced five shows in four seasons from 2013 to 2016. Just second to Mattia are Ian Stuart, who produced four Wildwood shows from 2007-2010, and Christopher Walkup, who produced four Wildwood shows in two seasons from 2017-2018. Bringing up the rear of the producer records is two-and-a-half time producer Quinn McCord (1995, 1998, & co-producer 1999).

Director Records: Jonathan Hadary directed three full shows, all during WST's founding years, from 1965-1967. Tied with him is Erica Chiusiano, who directed three shows with Wildwood from 2005-2007. Paul Edwards directed two and a "half" shows from 1968-1970 (the last year as co-director). Two-time Directors include Jeff Moreland (1973 & 1974), Bruce Dworkin (1984 & 1987), Josh Feldman (1992 & 1997), Devin Goodman (2012 & 2013), Jake Young (2016 & 2017), and Rocky Nunzio (2016 & 2018).

Longevity: The record of eleven summers with WST is held by Quinn McCord (1989-1999), with Anne Cannon (1977-1986), Neil McFadden (1980-1989), and Mary Emerson (1982-1991) having been involved for ten years each. Given the Theatre's age limit of 14-25, twelve summers should be the hypothetical limit, although it has never been achieved.

LOGOS

Background: Sometimes it may seem that nothing about WST remains consistent from year to year, but surprisingly, the company has employed only 6 major logos in its 50 plus years of existence. In general, these logos have mainly appeared on Wildwood's playbills and websites, though occasionally they have found their way onto letterheads and various forms of merchandising memorabilia. A list of these logos follows below:

1965-1975: THE LOGO THAT MADE EVERYONE SING "DOT DOT DOT, DOT TO THE TOP" 40 YEARS BEFORE THAT MADE SENSE

Wildwood's first logo was designed by Jonathan Hadary, WST's first Producer, Director, and Designer. The border around the logo changed from time to time (sometimes it was solid) and in later years, the "s" was often set slightly below the other letters, but in general, this was the logo Wildwood used during its first decade of existence. In case you were wondering, we were indeed a "theater" and not a "theatre" back then. The latter spelling was not employed by WST until 1974, and even then, "theater" did not entirely disappear from the scene until much later (see our third logo).

1976-1990: THE LOGO THAT LASTED A REALLY LONG TIME

This logo may have been designed by Joe Douglass, even though he had retired from the Theatre several years before it was actually used. It enjoyed the longest use of any WST logo, lasting 14 years. As noted above, starting in 1974, WST began billing itself as a "theatre", and all title pages inside the playbills employed that spelling of the word. Nevertheless, more often than not, the exterior logo would still proudly proclaim us to be "the Wildwood Summer Theater", an amazing discrepancy lasting through 1989 that managed to flourish a full 15 years in typical Wildwood fashion.

1991-1994: THE LOGO IN WHICH WE LEARNED HOW TO SPELL THEATRE

This was a fairly elaborate design whose major flaw seems to be that it actually required some level of artistic ability in order to be reproduced. Developed by Charlie Morrison, it only lasted a few years, but can still be found on a variety of frisbees, water bottles, and window stickers that were produced during that period. It also provided the first indication that Wildwood recognized the existence of capital letters, as previous logos were composed exclusively of lower-case characters.

1995-2001: THE LOGO OF AGES PAST AND A NIGHT THAT ENDS AT LAST

Wildwood's first computer-designed logo was developed by Kris Maccubbin and Alison Furlong. It had a dark, quasi-futuristic look to it. This logo stayed with Wildwood just into the 21st century.

2001-2011: THE LOGO THAT I CAN'T THINK OF A FUNNY TAGLINE FOR

This logo had many small iterations, all built around the main theme of the Wildwood abbreviation, WST, and a star in the upper curve of the "S". Sometimes it had "Willdwood Summer Theatre" written under it, sometimes it produced in white instead of black, and still other times pictures from past productions were laid under it. The creator of this logo is currently unknown.

2011-PRESENT: THE LOGO TO END ALL LOGOS

Wildwood's current logo is also, unsurprisingly, its most modern. It was developed by Shabnam Salek and has adorned t-shirts, programs, and more since its inception. Our current webmaster loves this version and hopes that our logo never ever changes again.