Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre: 1962

This page contains a more detailed guide to significant events concerning Scarborough's Theatre in the Round at the Library in 1962.

1962

  • January: A short tour to Newcastle-under-Lyme and Hemel Hempsted marks the end of touring by the company until 1974.
  • May: The brochure for the summer season at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre is published and includes the play The Ginger Man by J.P. Donleavy. This is advertised as "a controversial and highly amusing play." The play is later replaced by N. Richard Nash's The Rainmaker apparently because of an issue with royalties.
  • May: The summer brochure does not advertise William Norfolk's The Birds And The Well-Wishers as a double bill. It will actually be produced with another Norfolk play Nine Floors, Not Counting The Mezzanine.
  • May: The summer brochure does not advertise George Bernard Shaw's The Man Of Destiny as being a double-bill. It will actually be produced with another Shaw play O'Flaherty V.C..
  • 28 May: Prior to the summer season opening at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre, the company presents a two-week season at Dartington Hall, Totnes, presenting several of the plays which will feature in the Scarborough season.
  • Elizabeth Bell becomes the first Scarborough-born actress to join the Studio Theatre company.
  • 12 June: The summer season opens with Joan Macalpine's A Thief In Time.
  • 16 August: A production of The Caretaker marks the first professional performance of a play by Harold Pinter in Scarborough; this being despite the fact that Pinter had directed a production of his play The Birthday Party in Scarborough with the company in 1958 but for tour.
  • 9 October: Stephen Joseph opens the first permanent professional theatre-in-the-round venue in the UK at the Victoria Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent (a conversion of a former cinema). Studio Theatre Ltd transfers to the Victoria Theatre - along with the majority of its funding (which will be slashed in half soon after the move).
  • December: The move of Studio Theatre Ltd to Newcastle in the autumn - and the lack of funding in Scarborough - means there is no winter season at Theatre in the Round at the Library Theatre for the first time since 1957; winter seasons will not resume until 1974.
Article by and copyright of Simon Murgatroyd. Please do not reproduce this article without permission of the copyright holder.