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<font face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif">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% </font>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.<br>
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. <br>
<br>
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:<br>
Old Courthouse: An Enemy Of The People, Julius Caesar, Agamemnon and
Clytemnestra, Our Town, Look Back In Anger<br>
Rose Garden at Botanical Garden: The Dolls House, The Cherry Orchid
<br>
Concrete plaza in front of high school gym: Imaginary Invalid, One
Act Play Fesitval<br>
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.<br>
<br>
When we would ask Irma how can we do this show in the round? She
would always tell us, Use your mind!<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
JT<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 4/24/2017 7:45 PM, Miller, Daniel
via Stagecraft wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CO2PR01MB213490E431B4FE8ED8068077D01E0@CO2PR01MB2134.prod.exchangelabs.com">
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<div>Can anyone give me suggestions on good theatre-in-the-round
productions they have seen?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><font style="color:#333333"><i>Daniel L. Miller</i></font></div>
<div><font style="color:#333333"><i>Associate Professor of
Theatre</i></font></div>
<div><font style="color:#333333"><i>Dakota Wesleyan University</i></font></div>
<div><font style="color:#333333"><i><br>
</i></font></div>
<div><font style="color:#333333"><i>Sent from my Verizon 4G LTE
Droid</i></font></div>
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