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summer stock

summer stock

3 6.8
Plays put on by a local theatre group in the summer at holiday places
  • noun
  • /ˈsʌmər stɑk/
  • US
translation icon : teatro de verano
  • He gained valuable experience acting in summer stock theater, learning important skills for his future career.
  • summer stock theater
  • summer stock company
  • summer stock production

I sort of spent a couple years in Michigan doing summer stock and booking like America's Most Wanted.

Examples

  • Then one summer, while doing summer stock, I wrote a play that found a niche Off-Broadway.

    Blog text (11)
  • Every summer, tourists flock to watch the summer stock performances at the beautiful outdoor amphitheater.

  • I once did some summer stock.

  • We had both been in summer stock in New England.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • I'm going to try out for the summer stock program.

  • So I kept it a secret for a very long time until, until I was doing summer stock in New Hampshire.

  • That's where your mom and I met, doing The King and I in summer stock.

  • Other than some summer stock theater and the state park, there isn't much opportunity for an actor around here.

  • I've done musicals in summer stock, but my dream is to star in a new musical on Broadway, one that Stephen Sondheim writes just for me.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • During the summer, I joined a local theater group to perform in a summer stock production near the lake.

Synonyms

theater company
vssummer stock
  • US
9 2.7

A group of people who put on plays for an audience

is a seasonal resident group mainly performing during summer
repertory company
vssummer stock
1 6.8

A group of actors who regularly perform different plays during a season

is concentrated in the summer and tied to resort or rural stages
stock company
vssummer stock
  • Jargon
7.5

A group of actors who perform a set of plays regularly in one theatre

is seasonal and focused on productions at summer resorts or rural venues

Surface Forms

summer stock singular
summer stocks plural

Morphology

summer + stock

While 'summer' clearly signals the season, 'stock' here has a specialized theatrical sense (as in 'stock company' or repertoire) that is not the common B1 meaning like 'inventory' or 'regular supply'. A learner who knows the basic senses of the words would only partially infer the concept and would likely not identify the specific theatre-related meaning without exposure or cultural/domain knowledge. Therefore the transparency is partial rather than fully transparent or wholly idiomatic.

Etymology

Summer stock comes from old theatre practice: a stock company was a group of actors who kept a set of plays ready, and each summer they would go to resorts or small towns to put on shows. That's why summer stock means 'theatrical productions performed by a company during the summer'.