Contemporary Theater Company

Founding and Growth (2005)

Contemporary Theater Company was founded in June 2005 as The Courthouse Summer Theater Company, an unincorporated group of young local artists who wanted to bring scripted live theatre back to southern Rhode Island. The organization began as a summer-only operation before expanding to year-round programming.

Wakefield Home and Improv Programming (2012)

The company settled at 327 Main Street in Wakefield in 2012 and added weekly Micetro (Maestro) competitive improv to its programming. Rhode Island Monthly named the Micetro format Best Improv Competition in 2015. The organization purchased its 327 Main Street building outright in June 2018.

Contemporary Theater Company programs scripted mainstage productions alongside improv, youth camps, and theater classes from its Wakefield home. Its Micetro competitive improv format runs weekly as the primary improv programming within a mixed theatrical season.

Contemporary Theater Company's signature recurring improv event is its weekly Micetro competition, a competitive format in which individual improvisers are voted off the stage by the audience until a single performer remains, recognized as Best Improv Competition by Rhode Island Monthly. The company presents its Micetro program on a weekly basis, making it one of the most consistently scheduled competitive improv formats in New England. Beyond Micetro, the theater offers ongoing scripted productions across its mainstage season at its 327 Main Street venue in Wakefield.

Contemporary Theater Company was founded in June 2005 under the name The Courthouse Summer Theater Company by local artists in southern Rhode Island who sought to restore live professional theater to the South County community. After several years of itinerant operation the company settled permanently at 327 Main Street in Wakefield in 2012 and purchased the building outright in 2018, a step that secured its long-term institutional independence. The 2012 arrival at the Main Street space coincided with the launch of the weekly Micetro competitive improv program, which became the organization's most recognized improv offering and earned the Best Improv Competition designation from Rhode Island Monthly.

The company's commitment to purchasing its own venue placed it among a small group of regional theater nonprofits in Rhode Island with real property ownership, insulating its programming from the lease instability that has closed comparable organizations. Contemporary Theater Company serves both scripted and improv audiences in a market underserved by professional theater. No specific alumni are publicly documented with notable careers originating from its programs.