Basic Information;



BASIC INFORMATION;

Tamanend Park is located at 1255 Second Street Pike in Southampton, Pennsylvania (at the intersection of Maple Avenue halfway between Street and Bristol Roads).

Show times take place at dusk, which starts around 9:00pm but as the summer wanes, the times become earlier as the sun sets earlier, ending at around 6:00 pm.

The trails are illuminated with solar lights so you can feel confident that the lights will lead you to The Meadow Amphitheatre. If you arrive earlier you can check out the stage before it gets dark. This might help you feel better about where the films are shown because they are not right next to the parking areas. You will need to walk a little ways into the park. It is very enchanting and a lot of fun!

I suggest you get there a half an hour before dusk/dark. You are welcome to picnic in the Meadow while we set up for the film and you may end up getting a performance from the stage.

We have a concession stand where we sell canned soda, bagged chips, pretzels and popcorn. This year we tried ice pops and candy which worked well. For next season we hope to have purchased a popcorn machine.

We also sell insect repellent in case you forget to bring some, but the insects are really not that bad because we have tiki torches with citronella which seems to work pretty well.


We have a raffle which you can view on the IMS Virtual Studio and there is a countdown clock for the next film at that site also.

There are more pictures of the set-up for Cinema Under the Stars and you can also view a slide show presentation which will help you to locate the stage or find directions. To see this slide show go to;

The IMS Virtual Studio or The Shakespearean Journal.

Monday, May 13, 2019

GnomeFest

We are planning on producing GnomeFest in conjunction with The Gnomes of New Hope and our parade activity. When and if we get to that point, we will consider producing GnomeFest at Tamanend Park. It is well suited for what we are doing, it is nearby to Image f the Mind Studios, and we anticipate using The Southampton Days Parade as a test case for our parade presence with The Gnomes. It's not as close to New Hope as I would like, but... oh well. We will be looking for the right location in New Hope.

In that regard, we also anticipate creating a walk-thru cyclorama presentation. That may be a traveling exhibition or it may be permanently set-up in or around New Hope or Lahaska.

We also have in mind a theme park scenario somewhere in the vicinity.

All of these idea require Partnership. We'll see what happens. Send me an email. AG

The End of Cinema Under the Stars 2 Tamanend Park

We tried to keep Cinema Under The Stars going for four years. The program was building nicely when vandals ripped up the stage for the last time. The program was costing me too much for film rentals and did not receive enough contributions from the audience or the community. So I decided to remove the stage and discontinue our efforts to show films connected to The Meadow Amphitheater.   I'm posting this to see if the blog site show up again and to inform people of what happened to the web site/program. Thanks to those who did contribute. AG

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

2015 Review

After checking in with this blog, I realized that some more explanation is in order.

You may care to examine the blog for The Meadow Amphitheater where you can see the photos posted of the vandalism, which brought an end to the activities in Tamanend Park, with both the Shakespeareans and the Cinema Under the Stars.

It is my intention to continue with this program at another time and another place, but both of those are uncertain. Essentially, the stage you see here was disassembled, after the backdrop which held the screen was broken down by vandals. I and the other folks who helped with this program said "enough". We effected repairs on a regular basis and the energy expended to, not only repair the stage, but to set the program up every two weeks was extensive. The park did not maintain the field, nor the stage, that was up to us, as was the cost of presenting the program. The Southampton Library did allow us to use their equipment and that was wonderful and most appreciated, but overall the burden of the operation was on us as private individuals.  We were attempting to operate under the premise of donations and other fund raising activities, concessions and such, but this was simply not enough to keep it going. We also discovered, the hard way, that outdoor activities can be devastated by the weather.

So all in all, it was a good experiment... which may yet live to see another day.

My intention is to rebuild the stage with weather resistant materials and to do so as a rental stage. Just before we took the stage apart, we were attempting to implement reconstruction of it with stone, so that it would be resistant to weather and vandalism. But it was also determined by the collective thoughts of the park, the township, the police and those of us working on it, that the vandalism issue was a problem that could not be solved. And so, the community looses as a result of a few nere-do-wells.

Well, if anyone cares to see this project advanced or participate in rebuilding the rental stage, do contact me - Arthur Greisiger

Friday, June 1, 2012

UPDATE 6/1/12

The anticipated showing of "American Graffiti" is being postponed until such time as we can combine it with a car show and concert presentation with a selection of "Fifties" bands.  This was proposed as a fund raiser for a worthy cause and so we will save this for that purpose.

In addition to this, I am unwilling to produce showings, or stage presentations of Live material without a solid Board of Directors for these events.  I have found that there have been some folks who have been willing to help from time to time, but this group of people needs to be consistently there and committed to the process. 

I am willing to remain available to do this work, so long as we have at least six other committed individuals at the head, making a board of seven and a very definite source of funding.  My fund-raising efforts were spotty at best and I simply cannot dedicate that much effort to a community oriented program, particularly if the community is not contributing the resources we need to make this thing work.

I have achieved what I wanted to achieve in setting up and presenting an assortment of programs to show that it could be done and have some degree of success. The long term success of this endeavor is now in the hands of those people who want this type of program to continue and are willing to make commitments for that to happen.

As for me, I have other business matters that need to be attended to, but I will make myself and my resources available to some degree, depending upon the involvement of other people.  AG

Monday, May 7, 2012

Current Status for the 2012 Season

We have been showing films at The Meadow Amphitheatre for the past two years, with marginal success. The program has been refined nicely so that the staging area and trails leading up the the field have been very appealing. The sound system has, for the most part worked well, with an occasional snafu.  We have been able to offer a nice selection of concessions, with plans to incorporate a fresh popcorn machine.

Well, this year I have decided not to show any films or to produce any programs at the stage.

Construction on the stage in Tamanend Park began in 2008 and we managed to produce a number of programs there with some degree of success, having had a few audiences which approached 75 people.  We introduced Cinema Under the Stars in 2010 and made the investment in supplies, equipment and labor to present a very nice program of summer-time films in the park. At most we had 30 people attend a film, but more often than not we could count the attendance on one hand.  The films we showed had to be paid for, regardless as to whether or not anyone showed up. This in itself is enough of a discouragement from continuing. The amount of effort involved in setting up is too much for any few people to bear alone on an ongoing basis. 

We were willing to endure this low attendance for the sake of building an audience, but now I find that both myself, and those others people who have offered their help, are no longer willing to go through the amount of effort and expense for such little response. This is not to say that we cannot show films again.

If we find that someone or some organization would like to wholly sponsor a film showing, then we will be able to do that.  That means that one film showing will cost $500 and the sponsoring group will also need to provide a minimum of two people (preferably more) to assist in set-up, operation and strike. The sponsoring organization will be responsible for promotion and the film must be scheduled one month in advance of the showing. Other details will be discussed when you make an inquiry to me at imagemindag@verizon.net.

Regarding this decision on my part:   I must focus my resources and energy on building our stage musical "The Gnomes of New Hope" and producing the film version of this show.  In addition, I am giving my attention to repairing/restoring my vehicles (three of which are work vehicles used to aid in producing the theatre/film projects), re-establishing a new studio facility, and building a mobile version of the stage we built in Tamanend Park. All of these project have a much higher priority for me that  programs in Tamanend Park, which have been lightly received with very little assistance from the community.

In an effort to assure that the programs at The Meadow Amphitheater can continue, I am encouraging the reconstruction of the stage out of stone, so that the facility can endure for a much longer period of time without major maintenance issues and so that it may be available to  persons in the community as an additional stage facility. This is required due to the fact that the existing stage is made out of wood and will not endure the weather for much longer. If you would like to be involved in this effort, speak to me or the park office about this. AG

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Saturday October 22nd


The Season is winding down. We have been rained out seven times so far
but when it is nice, it is magical with the moon and the stars and the night air.
The trails are all lit from the park office and the parking lots.

You've got two more chances to check it out.

Without more participation,
this will not continue.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Laurence Olivier's Henry the Fifth

Here is the poster for the next film on Saturday October 8th.
The season is winding down
and the field at 
The Meadow Amphitheatre
has taken a beating in the rains
so we will need to be doing restoration work there
and need your help to do that.

Please consider contacting the Park Office in that regard.