The Plays: Year-by-Year (1966)

This page contains productions details for the interregnum amateur season at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, during 1966. All information on this page has been researched and compiled by Simon Murgatroyd M.A. from programmes, brochures and newspaper articles.

Summer 1966

In 1965, Stephen Joseph closed Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, Scarborough, with no intention of it re-opening. Scarborough Town Council had chosen not to offer any subsidy for the theatre in 1966 and Stephen had become increasingly frustrated by what he perceived as a lack of support from the Library Committee and the increasing limitations of the venue.

As a result, at the end of the 1965 summer season, he announced this had been the company's final season and that Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre would close.

However, the theatre manager and leading local amateur theatrical Ken Boden persuaded Stephen to let him run an amateur season in 1966 with the vague hope that funding and support might be found to allow professional theatre to resume in 1967. Stephen agreed, but would play no part in the season (by 1966, he was increasingly ill with the cancer which would claim his life in 1967).

Ken worked closely with Scarborough Theatre Guild and several of the town's amateur company to present a full summer season which ended with the annual In The Round Festival, which had begun in 1960.

There is no doubt that this decision and Ken's commitment to staging theatre that year is one of the major reasons why Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre survived and continues to this day as the Stephen Joseph Theatre. Had there not been a season in 1966 as Stephen Joseph intended, it is doubtful the company would have been revived professionally in 1967.

You can find out more about the Library Theatre’s links to the amateur community here.

1966: Amateur Season programme


Play
Doctor In The House
Intent To Murder
Bonaventure
Father Matthew
Doctor In The House
Intent To Murder
Bonaventure
Father Matthew
Seventh In The Round Festival

Playwright
Ted Willis
Leslie Sands
Charlotte Hastings
Aubrey Colin
Ted Willis
Leslie Sands
Charlotte Hastings
Aubrey Colin

Company
Cresta Players
Filey Drama Club
Phoenix Drama Club
Outsiders Drama Club
Cresta Players
Filey Drama Club
Phoenix Drama Club
Outsiders Drama Club

Dates
7 - 13 July
14 - 20 July
21 - 27 July
28 July - 3 August
4 - 10 August
11 - 17 August
18 - 24 August
25 - 27 August
3 - 10 September
All information for this page has been researched and compiled by Simon Murgatroyd and should not be reproduced without permission. Any approved reproduction of information from this page should always credit 'A Round Town (www.theatre-in-the-round.co.uk).