UPCOMING EVENTS
Tickets are available now.
Reserve your tickets online or by calling our Box Office.
75th Season Announcement Coming Soon
Experience the Magic of
For centuries, people have been telling each other stories through live theatre. Attic Theatre, Inc. continues this ancient tradition by providing thrilling, heartfelt, and humorous plays and musicals that bring joy and delight to the Fox Valley community. We invite you to donate and sponsor us to help us keep our theatre running strong!
Experience the Magic of
For centuries, people have been telling each other stories through live theatre. Attic Theatre, Inc. continues this ancient tradition by providing thrilling, heartfelt, and humorous plays and musicals that bring joy and delight to the Fox Valley community. We invite you to donate and sponsor us to help us keep our theatre running strong!
Creating Excellent
In 1950, the Cloak family on North Union Street in Appleton, Wisconsin, founded Attic Theatre in their attic. What started as a simple acting class has evolved into the longest-running community theater in the Fox Valley. In its early days, Attic performed in various locations, including Jefferson School and local church basements. When Lawrence University opened the Music-Drama Center, Attic formed a long-standing partnership with LU, utilizing both theaters during the summer. Over the years, our most recent venue, the beautiful Communication Arts Center at the UWO-Fox Cities Campus, has enabled us to produce a diverse range of plays with wider audience appeal. Sadly, the UW Oshkosh-Fox Cities Campus will close in June 2025, meaning Attic Theatre will lose these wonderful performance spaces. We’ve embraced this challenge and are excited to announce a new partnership with businesses across the Fox Valley for our 75th season!
“Community Theatre occupies a peculiarly important position in the American theater picture.... It engages more people in theatrical activity, albeit part-time, than all the rest of the American theatre put together, including schools and colleges.”
Theatre in America: Appraisal and Challenge
A Community Centerpiece
FOR GENERATIONS
Attic Theatre, Inc. is one of the oldest stage theatres in Wisconsin. Attic Theatre, Inc. has been a staple of the community for generations, continuously producing shows since 1950. Through the decades, the theater has provided the Fox Valley with thrilling stage productions that have kept alive the ancient art of stage theatre in the area. Donate today and keep our theatre running!
AUDITIONS
Would you like to join the show? Audition for a role in one of our productions! We hold auditions throughout the year, depending upon the show dates. Message us to learn more about upcoming auditions, or to have your email added to our audition notification list.
PARTNER WITH US
The life blood of Attic productions is sponsorship, which augments ticket sales in paying the costs of set design and building, costumes, props, and other show expenses.
For more information on sponsorship and sponsor benefits, please contact us by email attictheatre@gmail.com or phone 920-734-7887.
VISIT US TODAY
At Attic Theatre, Inc.
A Center of
CULTURAL ENRICHMENT
From simple beginnings, Attic has grown to produce hundreds of full-scale shows over a span of more than 70 years. In general, the arts inspire us by fostering creativity and strengthen our communities socially, educationally, and economically. Community theatre, such as Attic, allow the community to experience and participate in a creative and pleasurable experience. Each year, thousands of people participate in Attic Theatre on stage, backstage, as volunteers, or as audience members. Ticket sales exceed $4,000 annually. Attic truly does create excellent community theatre. Contact us today to learn more about our current shows or to buy tickets.
SEE WHY PEOPLE LOVE US
We are fans of the theater and have been to plays all over the country, including several visits to Broadway. Your production of Silent Sky was one of the best things I've ever experienced. It ranks up there with the best shows I've ever seen. Bravo Attic, well done!
Mark D.
"Any shows are top-notch with excellent acting. It is always entertaining and they build the sets for each show. The seating provides intimacy and may include interaction with the actors such as Caberet. I really enjoyed it. They also have snacks and beverages. A very classy venue"
"Saw "The Cure For Love ". Was hysterically funny. Great show!!"
"Saw the musical, "She Loves Me" (think "You've Got Mail"). It was wonderful! Top notch from the main characters all the way to the sound and light man. It was all very well done. See it, there are still a couple of performances left."
"Attic Theatre is the Fox Valley's premiere community theatre. With a 69-year history, theatre goers in the community have been well entertained for generations. I saw my first musical at Attic Theatre in 1977 and just took my granddaughter to her first musical!"
"Attic has been around for nearly 70 years, presenting quality community theatrical productions."
"Saturday night, I saw an excellent play called "Leaving Iowa" at Attic Theatre. The acting and direction was SO good and I loved every minute of the show! The show has closed now, but I just wanted to give a huge "Congratulations" to my friends who were involved in that outstanding production!"
What a wonderful play! It was funny, cute, and just entertaining.
Congratulations! Well Done! Great job!!! Such a fun show and you all should be very, very proud!!
I saw the show last night and it is wonderful. Loved every minute! It is a really moving and funny show acted by such talented actors.
FAQS
Attic Theatre, Inc. is a community theatre that has been operating in the Fox Valley for over 7 decades. Our story begins in a Victorian mansion on Union Street in Appleton, which was the home of Ted and Zoe Cloak. Ted Cloak was a Lawrence University theater professor, and Zoe was a champion of the arts. Zoe organized an acting class, which met in the attic of their Union Street house. Noting the lack of a community theatre in Appleton, Zoe Cloak then organized a company.
The group would meet and sometimes perform on the top floor of the Cloak home. A founding member of the group says that one day, during warm-up exercises, the group was discussing possible names for a community theatre group. Someone—no one knows exactly who—said, “What about Attic Theatre?” and it stuck.
Attic Theatre celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2020, and some of those original members have been active up to the present date.
Attic’s first public performances were in the old Knights of Pythia Hall, located on the corner of Lawrence and Morrison Streets. The Appleton YMCA is now occupying that location.
In Attic’s second year, performances were moved to what was the new Jefferson School gymnasium. Attic performed there until 1959, when the company moved to the Music and Drama Center at Lawrence, where Attic’s home was for many, many summers.
In 2004, the attic needed to find a new performance space and moved temporarily to the Kimberly Clark Room at the PAC. And while the PAC is a magnificent facility for traveling Broadway shows, the Kimberly Clark room did not meet Attic’s requirements, so the company moved again to a storefront space at Valley Fair Mall.
It was after the Valley Fair Mall season that the Board of Directors decided to disband the company. However, several very dedicated Attic veterans and supporters reorganized the company and worked to keep Attic going. After the reorganization, Attic returned to Lawrence for several seasons.
Eventually, Attic relocated to the Fox Cities Campus and started staging performances at the new Communication Arts Center situated on Midway Road in Menasha, which has been its home ever since.
The best way to support Attic Theatre, Inc. is to attend our shows!
Of course, like most community theaters, we depend to a large extent on our volunteers. There are opportunities to sell concessions, usher patrons to their sets, work backstage on props or costumes during a show, or run lights and sound. If you are looking for a more "hands-on" way to help, there are opportunities for building and painting sets.
Financially, our partners and individual donors make up the difference between ticket sales and the additional $70,000 that must be raised annually to pay for theater rental; set construction, costumes, and props; stipends for artistic and technical directors; and educational expenses.
You can contact us by calling us at (920) 734-7887 or e-mailing us at attictheatre@gmail.com.
Attic Theatre, Inc. thanks the Wisconsin Arts Board and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Attic Theatre, Inc. is supported w/ funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and granted through the Wisconsin Arts Board.
2024 Season Sponsor
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