The future of Surflight Theatre in Beach Haven, N.J., is up in the air after the highest bid during Thursday’s auction failed to cover the more than $3.5 million in debts associated with the site, The (Atlantic City) Press reported yesterday. The highest bidder for the complex was $2 million. Under the terms of the auction, bids had to be approved by the bankruptcy trustee. The more than half-acre property features a 450-seat theater, the 5,400-square-foot Dolores Moeller House, the 3,544-square-foot Show Place Ice Cream Parlour, the 4,216-square-foot Centre Street Administrative Building and a 1,560-square-foot single-family home. The Surflight was founded in 1950 and the theater was later moved to a garage-like building in Beach Haven, where audiences sat on folding chairs that surrounded three sides of the stage.
