The Playwright's Theatre Club was founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1953 by Paul Sills, David Shepherd and Eugene Troobnick. The theatre was noted for its original treatment and productions of classic plays as well as premiering original works, and was credited for the creation of The Compass Players and The Second City.
History Sills, Shepherd, and Troobnick In 1953 Paul Sills, David Shepherd, and Eugene Troobnick founded the Playwrights Theatre Club in Chicago.The Second City Celebrates Playwrights Theatre Club’s 60th Anniversary, Second City, May 22, 2013.Retrieved February 8, 2019. The theatre was noted for its bohemian treatment of classic plays as well as presenting and premiering original works.
The theatre's first known production was Bertolt Brecht's "The Caucasian Chalk Circle." In only two years, the company presented close to 30 full productions. During the rehearsal period, the company members engaged in numerous improvisational theater games that were originally created by Sills' mother, Viola Spolin.
The Playwright's Theatre Club led to the creation of the Compass Players and later The Second City.
Compass Players In 1955, the Playwrights Theatre Club was later renamed the Compass Players, concentrating on improvisational theater. Also founded by Shepherd and Sills, the Compass Players was the forerunner of The Second City.The 50th anniversary of the founding of The Compass Players was celebrated in 2005 by a re-enactment of a Compess-like show by a group of students at the University of Chicago; see http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/050818/compass.shtml Compass launched the careers of Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Jerry Stiller, Alan Alda, Alan Arkin, Barbara Harris, and Shelley Berman (to name a few) and started a revolution in the entertainment industry.See Stephen Kercher's book "Rebel With A Cause: Liberal Satire in Postwar America", University of Chicago Press, 2006. See also a review of this book by Warren Leming at http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_6.3/leming.htm.This formative time in the history of American improvisational theater is the subject matter of a 2011 documentary "Compass Cabaret '55; see http://siskafilms.com/ and http://www.outofboundscomedy.com/compass-cabaret-55-film/.
Famous alum
Other members and participants of the Playwrights Theatre Club included Elaine May, Sheldon Patinkin, Rolf Forsberg, Mike Nichols, Joyce Piven, Josephine Forsberg, Ed Asner, Barbara Harris, among others.
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