Stock theatre definition
Stock theatre generally means those summer and winter seasonal operations that employ Equity actors. “Resident theatre” is a term commonly used to indicate those operations that maintain a permanent company of Equity actors who usually perform … different plays in series or in alternating sequence. Both systems evolved from the nineteenth century English and American stock companies of professional actors that performed in their own “home” theatre, retained the same actors for long periods of time and presented a standard number of plays in repertory while adding new ones on occasion. Most stock theatres today, however, do not maintain resident companies . . . Many resident theatres today do not maintain a permanent company for more than a single season … stock, repertory and resident are terms that have established meaning both within the [theater] industry and for the general public … (Langley, 1974, p. 11 emphasis in original).