Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre: 1971

This page contains a more detailed guide to significant events concerning Scarborough's Theatre in the Round at the Library in 1971

For details of the schedule and company for 1971, visit the 1971 Details page.

1971

  • Caroline Smith is appointed Director of Productions for the summer season; she is the first 'Artistic Director' to be paid and receives £35 a week to encompass rehearsals and the summer season.
  • March: The Arts Council of Great Britain increases its annual grant to Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre from £1,400 to £2,500 to offset a national wage-rise for actors agreed by Equity.
  • April: The annual amateur season at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre - which preceded the summer professional season - leads to a complaint from the Cresta Players about a financial loss that year; this being despite being told beforehand their production expenses were too high and they would be unable to turn a profit!
  • 14 June: The summer season opens with Dylan Thomas's Under Milkwood.
  • 8 July: World premiere of Alan Ayckbourn's Time & Time Again; this is regarded as the playwright's first foray into the tragi-comic genre he will be most associated with.
  • Summer: Time & Time Again is the first Ayckbourn play to feature a water feature and one night, the garden pond develops a leak dripping water into the reading room below the Concert Room where Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre is based. The Libraries Committee is unamused.
  • 5 August: Howard Brenton's Revenge opens at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre with a warning given to audiences about its violence and language; this leads to the vicar of St Martin's Church writing a letter of complaint on behalf of the Scarborough Council Of Churches to the Town Council and the Libraries Committee.
  • 14 August: The architect George Alderson reports that the cost of buying the Christian Science Church for the new theatre would be £25,000 with an additional £50,000 needed to convert it to a theatre space; at that point the theatre had raised £18,539 towards the project.
  • 1 December: In a report on the summer season to the Library Committee, Ken Boden notes the play was a financial disaster, largely due to the language: "I issued a warning to the public - it was an honest warning and not a publicity stunt. There were many four letter words spoken during the action of the play and I did not want anyone going into the theatre not knowing this. I believe that my honest effort killed the Box Office but I maintain it was the best thing to do."
Article by and copyright of Simon Murgatroyd. Please do not reproduce this article without permission of the copyright holder.