Gateway Playhouse
The Gateway, also known as The 'Gateway Playhouse, or the Performing Arts Center of Suffolk County' is a professional regional theatre located on the eastern edge of Bellport, New York. The street address is 215 South Country Road. It is the oldest professional theatre on Long Island and nationally recognized as one of the top ten summer theatres in the nation.
History
In 1941, Harry C. Pomeran bought a 70-acre farm in Bellport, NY with intentions of creating a hotel. Harry and his wife, Libby, converted the property into a resort hotel for visitors spending the summer on Long Island. Their three children Sally, David, and Ruth planted vegetables, washed dishes, waited tables, and milked the family cow, Daisy. The barn housed Daisy alongside 200 chickens, hay, corn, and other essentials. The windmill pumped the family's water from a deep artesian well. When the Pomeran children began entertaining guests with shows and skits, the family knew that this was the true destiny of the humble barn.The Gateway's theatrical tradition began in 1950 with a production of Taming of the Shrew in the old barn--converted into a theater by popular demand. By the 1960s, it transitioned from a summer stock to a professional company, complete with a new theater that seats 500. It also began teaching acting classes for children and adults in the area, and staging Children's Theater productions in the summer. In 2011, The Gateway Playhouse and its Acting School combined to form the non-profit organization, the Performing Arts Center of Suffolk County, or The Gateway.
Among its notable productions are a 1992 production of Once on This Island with Norm Lewis, as well as a 2011 production of Sunset Boulevard and a 2016 production of Anything Goes with Andrea McArdle.
Each fall, the theater transforms into the Haunted Playhouse.