Barn Theatre

The Barn Theatre, originally constructed in 1943 by Robert M. Cook as a dairy barn, is the home of Michigan’s oldest resident summer stock theatre. Such theaters use a group of actors who perform consecutive productions of different shows. Founded in 1946 as the Village Players, the company first used the Community Hall in Richland. It began renting this barn in 1949 and purchased it in 1954. The company was incorporated as The Barn Theatre, Incorporated, on July 12, 1949. It became an Equity (union of professional stage actors) theater in 1951. The company has performed over three hundred plays and musicals and played to over one million patrons.