[SML] Theatre-in-the-Round Productions

[John Taylor]

I had the honor of getting my feet wet in real theatre with an amazing 
lady, Irma Schira Tucker. From the day she founded City Players of St 
Louis in 1937 till her death at the age of 90 in 1993, she lived and 
breathed theatre. More important to this message she loved doing theatre 
in the round. Sometimes it might have been only 90% round but it was 
always special. Irma did sometimes use traditional proscenium staging 
but only when there was no other option. I started working with her in 
the 60's when I was in high school and worked with her off and on for 
many years. We did shows in a number of locations through the years. 
 From the rooftop of the downtown YMCA, to the rose garden of Shaw's 
Botanical garden, to the rotunda of the old courthouse in downtown St 
Louis and on the entrance plaza to the gym of East St Louis Sr High School.
Working with many different designers through all those years we all 
learned a lot about doing it in the round from each other and from Irma. 
We did almost every show or type of show you can imagine including many 
world premiers. Irma had a special relationship with Samuel French and 
we produced many original and several world premiers. So there often was 
no precedent to look at. In all her years of directing she only repeated 
a show one time with City Players (she did occasionally use a show at 
the high school that had been done with City Players). The reason for 
that was we had such a huge demand 2 years after doing it that she 
finally agreed to stage it again. That is one of the shows that was done 
in 90% round. The set had 3 small overlapping flats at the 12 o'clock 
position on the stage.

Sometimes the location was picked because of the show, Some of the shows 
that come to mind and I will try to put location with them if I can:
Old Courthouse: An Enemy Of The People, Julius Caesar, Agamemnon and 
Clytemnestra, Our Town, Look Back In Anger
Rose Garden at Botanical Garden: The Dolls House, The Cherry Orchid
Concrete plaza in front of high school gym: Imaginary Invalid, One Act 
Play Fesitval
Old insurance building turned into arts school: Many shows there as it 
became home for many years, Oldest Living Graduate, Seascape (the only 
repeated show), Bus Stop, Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum, 
and many, many more.

When we would ask Irma how can we do this show in the round? She would 
always tell us, Use your mind!

Somewhere I have a couple of pics that I will see if I can find from 
those years. Heading into tech now so it will be a while before I can 
search for them.

JT

On 4/24/2017 7:45 PM, Miller, Daniel via Stagecraft wrote:
> Can anyone give me suggestions on good theatre-in-the-round 
> productions they have seen?
>
> /Daniel L. Miller/
> /Associate Professor of Theatre/
> /Dakota Wesleyan University/
> /
> /
> /Sent from my Verizon 4G LTE Droid/
>
>
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