The Attic Theatre, a community theater in Appleton, Wisconsin, was founded in 1950 by Zoe Cloak. The first meetings of the group were held in Mrs.Cloak's attic, giving the theater its name. During the summer months a series of four plays was produced, with rehearsals and performances held at Jefferson School in Appleton. In its first ten years the Attic Theatre attracted community-wide interest and support. In 1960 a peak summer season attendance of 7,000 and the addition of a three-play winter season necessitated the Theatre's move into larger facilities at Lawrence College in Appleton. In 1963 the summer series was expanded to five plays.
In addition to its regular play series, the Attic Theatre also offered short dramas and one-person comedy routines as program supplements for high schools, senior citizens centers and service organization meetings in nearby cities. For several years the theater also maintained the Attic Theatre Booking Service. In most years the Theatre was self-supporting and often able to pay small salaries to production staff and actors. Occasionally outside financial assistance was necessary.
Mrs. Cloak served as board member and managing director of the Attic Theatre from 1950 to 1962, often with the assistance of her husband, F. Theodore, a drama professor at Lawrence College. In 1961 the theater was incorporated and its structure reorganized to include a board of governors, executive committee, president, business manager, publicity director, and committees. Mrs. Cloak was succeeded by Boyd L. Payne and Donald E. Jones, who alternated in the posts of manager, president, and director from 1961-1964; and by presidents James Auer, 1961; Boyd L. Payne, 1962-1964; William M. Schutte, 1965; Tom Jacobs, 1966; Carl Wenzel, 1967; Helen Dixson, 1968; F. Theodore Cloak, 1969; Marilyn Auer, 1970-1971; and Dr. Edmund C. Roney, 1971.
