The Founding in 1924:
Movies took over many of the theaters where road companies had performed live drama, so a group of Omahans joined others across America in the Little Theater movement. Architect Alan McDonald found time while designing the Joslyn Museum to serve as president of the new Community Playhouse and declare its purpose: “To raise the drama from a purely amusement enterprise into an educational, cultural force.” The Playhouse promised a season of good plays at a reasonable price plus the chance to participate on and off stage.
First Play Stars Mrs. Brando:
A March, 1925, vaudeville show at the new Technical High School auditorium raised funds, but the first “real” play under director Greg Foley opened in April. “The Enchanted Cottage” starred Dodie Brando, a year after the birth of son Marlon. The cast included Jayne Fonda whose brother Henry was then studying journalism in Minneapolis. Produced on the non-sloped floor of the Mary Cooper Dance Studio near 40th and Farnam, the Pinero drama was accompanied by dancing and musical acts. After two days there, it traveled for a one-nighter in Fremont.
First Season Brings Fonda:
Foley needed a juvenile lead for “You and I” to open the first six-play season (1925-26), so Mrs. Brando called her friend Herberta Fonda and recruited her 20-year-old son, Henry. His debut came the same week in October that conductor Sandor Harmati arrived to guide the new Omaha Symphony Orchestra.
Build Theater in 28 Days:
A second season found Fonda as “Merton of the Movies” and Mrs. Brando as O’Neill’s “Anna Christie” and Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” but the third year saw that dance studio converted for chicken dinners. After moving shows to Benson High, the Playhouse board led by Genevieve Guiou and McDonald began to build on Sarah Joslyn’s cow pasture at 40th and Davenport. Only 28 days after ground- breaking, the “temporary” theater opened on Oct. 30, 1928. First-nighters waited a half hour while seats were bolted down and debris swept out, then watched Rudyard Norton in “Aren’t We All.” Children’s plays and puppet shows were soon added.
Director Szold, Dorothy McGuire:
Newcomer Bernie Szold directed that opening and before leaving in 1935 was credited nationally for the Playhouse culturally “Coming of Age.” A football all-American and flamboyant figure in an opera cape, Szold introduced 13-year-old Dorothy McGuire to the stage and brought guest star Henry Fonda back to co-star with her in “A Kiss for Cinderella.” Other Szold highlights: his title role in O’Neill’s “The Hairy Ape” and bringing his friend, Iowa artist Grant Wood, to design scenery for an original play, “Brigham Young.” Last-minute Mormon pressure led to divorcing 14 of Young’s 17 wives from the cast.
Musicals, Notables, 1935-41:
Now a film star, Henry Fonda bought new seats for the theater, easing the role of his father as house manager. Szold’s successor, Edward Steinmetz, Jr., was followed by Gordon Giffen, who brought the first musicals to the Playhouse. The 100th production in 1939 was a musical version of the old melodrama, “Our American Cousin.” Earlier, the only songs aired between acts and were not integral to the plays. Giffen then tackled Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Gondoliers” in 1940 and came closer to the modern musical with “Knickerbocker Holiday” in 1941. Julie Wilson, who sang in its chorus, became Manhattan’s favorite cabaret singer. This period also saw future mayor and U.S. Congressman Glenn Cunningham on the Playhouse stage. The “Tired Old Horse” in a children’s play was tall Letitia Baldrige, who gained fame as an author and aide to Jackie Kennedy. One of the first Fonda-McGuire acting awards went to a teen-age Lenka Peterson, who enjoyed a long stage, film and television career.
WWII and Kendrick Wilson:
The outbreak of World War II brought the arrival of director Kendrick Wilson, then his departure for military service, and his return for a creative tenure that continued until 1967. If the Playhouse had barely survived in 1928 when it briefly found itself with neither a theater nor a director, the war left it short of funds, audience and male players. Treasurer Clarence Teal led the effort to keep it solvent and male-heavy plays were changed to such dramas as “The Women” by Clare Booth Luce.
Post-War Prosperity, New Home in 1959:
Growing attendance and record runs marked the late 1940s, and in the 1950s Teal headed a new building committee. It promised relief from that “temporary” theater which sent actors shivering into the cold when exits left them on the wrong side of the stage. Until the 1950s, much scenic design work was done by such volunteers as Emmy Gifford, who doubled as costume designer. The first full-time designer was soon followed by Royal Eckert, who stayed for more than a decade. Fund-raising for the new building at 69th and Cass brought Fonda, McGuire and a young Jane Fonda to Omaha for a benefit performance of “Country Girl.” The musical “Say, Darling” opened the new facility in 1959. Before later expansion, it was confined to the auditorium and the space in front, behind and below. A live television show hosted by Elaine Jabenis welcomed first-nighters to the new Playhouse.
Studio Theater Adds Alternatives in 1960s:
Experimental, avant garde and controversial plays had been performed outside the regular Playhouse season as early as the 1930s, but the new space and the hiring of an associate director permitted the addition of the Studio Theater. It became a fixture in the 1960s with such works as Sartre’s “No Exit” or the plays of Tennessee Williams performed in the basement rehearsal hall. The Studio series would evolve into the Fonda-McGuire program performed in the Howard Drew space after the Playhouse was expanded in 1986. The main stage offered the first full Shakespearean production, “Julius Caesar,” in 1961 and season-opening musicals became crowd-pleasers. Two young actors, Peter Fonda and Terry Kiser, went from the Playhouse to national prominence in the 1960s.
Then Came Charles Jones, Tornado:
Two short-term directors followed Wilson’s farewell in 1967, as did a planned merger, then a split from the Junior Theater, which in various forms had been under the Playhouse guidance since the late 1920s. Along came a sizable, charming Southerner, Charles Jones, as the new director, accompanied by scenic designer James Othuse. They arrived in the summer of 1974, followed by a record blizzard and a tornado in 1975. The latter raised the Playhouse roof and brought renovations. The first Jones-Othuse show, “The Music Man,” gave a hint of their high standards for big productions. By 1976, Jones had created his version of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and launched the Nebraska Theater Caravan to tour the state and later the nation. And the Playhouse, already well-recognized beyond its borders, was well on its way toward recognition as America’s leading community theater. A costume designer had been added to the staff in the late 1960s, and other creative and technical specialists followed, with Jones hiring Joanne Cady as choreographer soon after his arrival.
Growth in the 1980s:
The renovation led by Margre Durham after the tornado was followed by a six-million-dollar expansion in the mid-1980s with Barbara Ford heading a campaign that doubled space at the Playhouse. Additions allowed the Studio Theater to move out of the basement and become the Fonda-McGuire series, replaced the old entry area with the glass-fronted Owen Lobby, and created the Hitchcock Rehearsal Hall. Early in the Jones era, season memberships doubled from 4,000 to 8,000, and passed 10,000 in the mid-80s. Nearly 20,000 attended a 1988 production of “South Pacific” and more than 18,000 packed the 1991 performances of the annual “Christmas Carol.” Three Caravan companies took the Dickens-Jones collaboration on Midwest, East Coast and West Coast tours. The once music-deprived Playhouse now offered both fall and spring musicals on the main stage, others in the smaller space. “The Robber Bridegroom” in 1979, followed by “The 1940s Radio Hour” and “The Quilters,” performed in Europe. Sculptures of Don Quixote and other figures by artist Milton Heinrichs enlivened the exterior of the Playhouse.
Number One in the 1990s:
Before Jones stepped down in 1997, the Playhouse was widely recognized as America’s top community theater as measured by attendance, staff size and budget. “Charles took a medium-flight theater and made it No. 1 in the nation,” one outside observer noted, citing both size and quality of productions. Other theaters produced his “Carol” and he adapted Willa Cather’s “O Pioneers!” and “My Antonia” for the Playhouse. As season membership peaked at over 12,000, “My Antonia” and “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat” set attendance records for drama and musical in 1994. The musical “Buddy” earned over $200,000 in 2002, setting a revenue record for productions other than “A Christmas Carol.” Growth brought a managing director to run the operation and two former Caravan performers, Carl Beck and Susie Baer Collins, as associate directors. Beck became artistic director on the retirement of Jones and continued its distinctive status.