1956

Artistic Director
Stephen Joseph

Summer Season Dates
12 July - 7 September

Performances
Mon to Sat at 8pm
Wed at 2.30pm

Ticket Prices
5/- (25p) & 3/6 (17.5p)
Concessions: 4/- (20p)
Matinees: 2/6 (12.5p)

2 January (circa): Scarborough Town Council is told Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre is "a very deserving cultural activity" by Councillor Walsh, chairman of the Libraries Committee.
30 April: In an interview in the Yorkshire Evening News, Stephen Joseph notes: "We had a remarkably good season there [at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre] last year and I am confident that we shall do even better this year."
Stephen Joseph secures financial help from Scarborough Corporation, the Libraries Committee and the Arts Council of Great Britain for the summer season of at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre.
June: The summer brochure advertises a double bill for week commencing 19 July consisting of Clifford Williams' The Disguises Of Arlecchino and Eleanor D. Glaser's Call The Selkie Home. It is actually produced as a triple bill with the British premiere of Tardieu's Office Of Information.
The Scarborough Evening News reports on 6 June that matinee double-bills for children are planned with Call The Seal Home [sic - it should be selkie not seal] and Harlequinade; presumably Terence Rattigan's one-act play - despite essentially being an adult farce. These did not take place presumably because the Library Theatre's license did not cover children's performances.
6 June: The Scarborough Evening News reports the new season will see every seating row raised at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, improved lighting equipment and a better advertising campaign.
Performances for the summer season are advertised as finishing by 9.30pm with coffee and biscuits - priced at nine pence - served in the Exhibition Room afterwards.
Prices are refined for the second seasons being set at 5/- (25p) with the back row at 3/6 (17.5p). Concessions for under 18s are available at 4/- (20p) with matinees priced at 2/6 (12.5p).
12 July: The second season at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre opens with the world premiere of Father Matthew by Aubrey Collins; the play had a preview performance with the Studio Theatre Club on 8 July at the Mahatma Gandhi Assembly Hall in Fitzroy Square, London.
c. 17 July: The company resume once-a-week matinee performances at Wallis's Holiday Camp, Cayton Bay; they do not continue after the 1956 summer season.
19 July: The second production of the season is a triple bill which includes the world premiere of Clifford William's The Disguises Of Arlecchino; Williams will go on to become one of the Royal Shakespeare Company's most acclaimed directors.
2 August: World premiere of David Campton's Idol In The Sky. Although credited to David Campton, notes in the Stephen Joseph Papers held at the University Of Manchester indicate the play was originally written by Stephen Joseph under the title What Would Mildred Have Said. The archive notes the play was re-arranged by David Campton for performance at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre.
15 August: Matinees begin for the summer seasons on Wednesdays at 2.30pm; they only begin once all the plays are in rep for the season.
7 September: The season closes with David Campton's Idol In The Sky; it is reported in the Leicester Mercury in 1957 that the season lost £500.
9 September: The Sunday Club (Studio Theatre Club) season resumes at the Mahatma Gandhi Hall in London.
Studio Theatre Ltd acknowledges financial assistance from the Arts Council of Great Britain for the season; this credit in the programmes will be carried throughout the decade.

Article by and copyright of Simon Murgatroyd. Please do not reproduce this article without permission of the copyright holder.

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Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre: 1956

1956