The Circle in the Square Theatre is a Broadway theatre in midtown Manhattan at 235 West 50th Street in the Paramount Plaza building.
Video Circle in the Square Theatre
History
The original Circle in the Square was founded by Theodore Mann, José Quintero, Jason Wingreen, Eileen Cramer and Emily Stevens in 1951 and was located at 5 Sheridan Square (a former nightclub) in Greenwich Village. The original Circle in the Square did not have a theater license, but Mann was able to get a cabaret license; the production staff and off duty actors served as waiters if anyone insisted on ordering food or drinks. Many of the theater personnel, both acting and technical, lived on the premises. Even classical performances took place here: Pianist Grete Sultan, who later became a well known interpreter of New Music and was John Cage's close friend, performed the Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach at the theatre in January 1953. After directing several landmark productions at Circle in the Square, Jose Quintero left to work on other projects. His last production for Circle in the Square was Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under The Elms.The best known productions in the original theater were Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke, with Geraldine Page and Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh, with Jason Robards.
In 1960 the company moved to the Circle in the Square Downtown, at 159 Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village in a historic building built in 1917 (which now houses The Market NYC, an indoor market). Their first production in the new space was Thornton Wilder's Our Town. Before it became the second Circle in the Square Theatre, the company's new home was first a movie house followed by the original Amato Opera House. It was built by and operated by Italian-Americans, which was typical of the South Village in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. Many of these theaters in the South Village were, like the second Circle in the Square, built or altered from other types of existing structures.
Designed by architect Alan Sayles, the present home of the company is one of two theatres in the Paramount Plaza office tower. Its much bigger sibling is the Gershwin Theatre. The theatre entrance lobbies are side by side but separated by a wall. It is designed to reflect the theatres of ancient Greece and Rome and is the only Broadway theatre that has a vomitorium, which is sometimes used as an entrance and exit for the actors.
The Gershwin and Circle in the Square were built in 1970 when the Uris Brothers tore down the Capitol Theatre to build the tower (with the Gershwin originally being called the Uris Theatre). Their first production on Broadway, a revival of Mourning Becomes Electra, opened on November 15, 1972.
The theatre is below street level. It is one of only two Broadway houses with a thrust stage (the other is Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater).
The building also houses the Circle in the Square Theatre School, the only accredited training conservatory associated with a Broadway theatre, which offers two two-year training programs, in acting and musical theatre.
Maps Circle in the Square Theatre
Notable productions
- 1952: Yerma; Summer and Smoke
- 1956: The Iceman Cometh
- 1966: Eh?
- 1972: Mourning Becomes Electra
- 1973: Uncle Vanya; The Iceman Cometh; The Waltz of the Toreadors
- 1974: The National Health
- 1975: Death of a Salesman; Ah, Wilderness!; The Glass Menagerie
- 1976: Pal Joey; The Night of the Iguana
- 1977: Tartuffe
- 1980: Major Barbara; The Man Who Came to Dinner
- 1984: Awake and Sing; Design for Living
- 1982: Present Laughter
- 1985: Arms and the Man
- 1987: Coastal Disturbances; Oil City Symphony
- 1988: A Streetcar Named Desire
- 1988: Night of The Iguana
- 1989: Sweeney Todd
- 1992: Anna Karenina; Salome
- 1995: The Rose Tattoo
- 2000: The Rocky Horror Show; True West
- 2002: Metamorphoses
- 2003: Life (x) 3
- 2005: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
- 2008: Glory Days
- 2009: The Norman Conquests
- 2010: The Miracle Worker; Lombardi
- 2011: Godspell
- 2013: Soul Doctor
- 2014: Bronx Bombers; Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill; The River
- 2015: Fun Home
- 2016: In Transit
- 2017: Once on This Island
References
Notes
Bibliography
- Mann, Theodore Journeys In The Night, New York:Applause Theater & Cinema Books, 2007
External links
- Official site
- Circle in the Square papers, 1906-2004 held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
- Circle in the Square Theatre at the Internet Broadway Database
- Profile of the Circle in the Square Theatre (with seating chart) at NY Tix.com
- Circle in the Square Photographs at Special Collections Dept., University Library, University of California, Davis
Source of article : Wikipedia
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