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32-528: The theatre has had five artistic directors: founder Dr. Patricia McIlrath guided the theater from 1964 until she retired in 1985; George Keathley was artistic director from 1985–2000; producing artistic director Peter Altman, who retired in July 2007; Eric Rosen; and the current artistic director Stuart Carden. Appointed chairman of the University of Kansas City (now UMKC ) Theatre Department and director of

64-581: A quonset hut on the UMKC campus. In 1967, the Rep became affiliated with Actors’ Equity Association , the national union of professional actors. In 1968, Dr. McIlrath launched a touring program called " Missouri Repertory Theatre ," and began recruiting nationally acclaimed artists to work in this program. In 1979, the company moved into the Helen F. Spencer Theatre in the newly constructed UMKC James Olson Center for

96-572: A B.A. from Grinnell College and an M.A. from Northwestern University before graduating from Stanford University in 1951 with her Ph.D., which McIlrath earned while on leave from the University of Illinois , where she held a faculty position in the Department of Speech and Theatre between 1946 and 1954. McIlrath was hired by the University of Kansas City in 1954 as a professor of theatre and director of its University Playhouse. In 1959, while professionally directing Sophocles ' Electra at

128-504: A future Boston." Critics noted the importance of the series for keeping the Company relevant even while the theater was shuttered, noting "[t]he goal, it would seem, is twofold: on the one hand, by providing a venue to connect with remote audiences today, the series is keeping theater alive, for the present; at the same time, for those of us tuning in, closing our eyes, and connecting to these stories, we are encouraged to keep hope alive, for

160-475: A major refurbishment of Spencer Theatre was completed. Kansas City Repertory Theatre appointed Eric Rosen as its new Artistic Director in 2007. He was a co-founder and artistic director of About Face Theatre, an LGBT theatre located in Chicago, and is involved in the development of new work and a playwright. Rosen started a new era at the Rep with an inaugural 2008/09 season that included the pre-New York run of

192-549: A partnership that would continue for twenty years. Professional actors, community players, and members of the UMKC Theatre Department, operating on a shoestring budget, worked together that first season to present the Summer Rep's two-week fledgling season. Fifteen hundred patrons attended performances of The Corn is Green by Emlyn Williams and Private Lives by Noël Coward , both performing out of

224-667: A result of Boston University's decision to sell the BU Theatre on Huntington Avenue, the Huntington Theatre Company and Boston University dissolved their relationship. The new owners of the BU Theatre Complex, QMG Huntington LLC, proposed the creation of a new condo tower, while also allowing the Huntington to lease the renovated theatre space for $ 1 per year for the next 99 years. Construction

256-757: The 360 seat Virginia Wimberly Theatre, the Nancy and Edward Roberts Studio Theatre, Carol G. Deane Hall, and Nicholas Martin Hall. The Huntington also operates BostonTheatreScene.com where tickets are sold for productions at the Boston University Theatre, the BCA Theatres on the Plaza, and Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA. The Huntington has transferred 16 productions to New York, including two in 2012:

288-949: The Broadway premiere of Lydia R. Diamond's Stick Fly and the Roundabout Theatre Company production of Stephen Karam's Sons of the Prophet , named a 2012 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Eight of August Wilson 's plays were produced at the Huntington before going on to premiere in New York. The Huntington's relationship with Wilson began in 1986 with a production of Wilson's third play, Joe Turner's Come and Gone . The theater has also staged Wilson's 10-play Century Cycle in its entirety. The theater fosters new talent through its Huntington Playwriting Fellows program, Breaking Ground Festival, and Summer Workshop Program. Huntington productions of plays by Fellows include The Luck of

320-519: The KCRep for All community tour, as well as the Ghost Light annual storytelling event. In February 2007, the Rep opened a second venue, Copaken Stage, a 317-seat downtown theater located in the heart of the new Power and Light entertainment district. Kansas City Repertory Theatre (re-printed with permission) Patricia McIlrath Patricia Anne McIlrath (January 25, 1917 – March 4, 1999)

352-741: The Performing Arts. It was named for Helen Elizabeth Foresman Spencer (1902–1982) who along with her husband Kenneth Aldred Spencer (died 1960) built the Spencer Chemical Company which was ultimately sold to the Gulf Oil Company in 1963. The assets of both Spencers would go into the Kenneth A. and Helen F. Spencer Foundation which provided philanthropies throughout the Kansas City area. That same year marked

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384-571: The Regional Theatre Movement, such as Margo Jones , Zelda Fichandler , Michael Murray , and Tyrone Guthrie . Prior to the founding of the Missouri Rep, the residents of Kansas City and the surrounding metropolitan area had been virtually devoid of any source of locally based professional theatre for several decades. The founding of the Missouri Rep served as the impetus which led to the revival of professional theatre in

416-473: The Rep in a number of ways: The Rep, directed by its board, has now operated independently of UMKC Theatre , continues to benefit of maintaining its close relationship with the university and its theatre training programs. Dr. McIlrath retired in 1985. An extensive search for Dr. McIlrath's successor led to the appointment of George Keathley as the new artistic director. With thirty-five years of experience in acting, directing, and producing, Keathley built on

448-564: The Rep one of the nation's most financially stable institutions. Costin's gift provided Altman with resources to build on the artistic legacies of his predecessors. A new era for the company began with Peter Altman assuming leadership in 2000 as producing artistic director. Altman came to the Rep after eighteen years as founding producing director of the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston. Under his direction and that of

480-601: The Rita Allen Theatre in New York City , McIlrath found herself dismayed at the divide that existed between her academic theatre training and the demands of professional theatrical production. As a result, she became unquestionably convinced of the necessity to integrate professional theatre training into the curriculum of academic theatre programs in the United States. To that end, McIlrath founded

512-602: The UMKC Summer Repertory Theatre in 1964 (the same year in which the private University of Kansas City was inducted into the public University of Missouri system, becoming the University of Missouri-Kansas City ). The company soon changed its name to the Missouri Repertory Theatre, achieved professional status as an Equity organization in 1966, and founded its own touring wing—Missouri Vanguard Theatre—in 1968. McIlrath remained

544-559: The University Playhouse in 1954, Patricia McIlrath created a program to provide undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to work in a professional theatre, alongside professional actors. Coinciding with the rise of Regional theater in the United States , she formed the UMKC Summer Repertory Theatre in 1964. That same founding year, 1964, James Costin was appointed the Summer Rep‘s administrative director, creating

576-500: The administrative helm of the organization. Upon their retirements, at the celebration welcoming their successor Peter Altman, Keathley and Costin each offered a gift symbolizing the passing of their legacies to him. For Keathley the gift was a glass elephant from the original production of The Glass Menagerie given to him by Tennessee Williams many years before. Costin's gift to Altman was an audience base of 100,000 and cash reserves and endowment funds of more than $ 10 million, making

608-447: The age of 82, and is buried at Calvary Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri. Huntington Theatre Company The Huntington Theatre Company is a professional theatre located in Boston, Massachusetts and the recipient of the 2013 Regional Theatre Tony Award, under the direction of Managing Director Michael Maso. It is notable for its longstanding artistic relationship with African-American playwright August Wilson . The Huntington

640-794: The area. Following in the wake of the Missouri Rep, numerous other professional theatre companies established in the city since the 1970s have found lasting success, such as the Unicorn Theatre, the Coterie Theatre, the New Theatre, and the American Heartland Theatre. In 1989, the Kansas City-based art journal Forum wrote of McIlrath's influence: "Before her arrival, there was no legitimate, locally produced, professional theatre in Kansas City. Now

672-438: The city boasts 10 equity theatres in a market area of only 1.5 million people. All of those theatres are headed by people who got their start in professional theatre under Patricia McIlrath." McIlrath never married or had any children of her own, but following her retirement devoted herself to a close-knit family consisting of "thirteen nieces and nephews and twenty three grand nieces and nephews." She died on March 4, 1999, at

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704-551: The company. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the company put their 2020–21 season on an indefinite hold. The Huntington projected losses due to the pandemic of $ 6.3 million. During the summer of 2020, the company furloughed 46 staff members, laid off 11 people, and eliminated positions. In July, 2020, the company launched a series of miniature audioplays, collectively known as " Dream Boston ," challenging local playwrights "to imagine favorite locations, landmarks, and their friends in

736-810: The future." The Huntington Avenue Theatre, located at 264 Huntington Avenue, was built in 1925 as the Repertory Theatre, and was designed by J. William Beal's Sons in the Georgian Revival style . The theatre is listed on the National Register of Historic Places . The company built and operates the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, located at 527 Tremont Street. It houses

768-483: The head of UMKC Theatre until 1984, and retired as Artistic Director of the Missouri Repertory Theatre in 1985. McIlrath's desire to establish both a training ground for professional theatre artists in Kansas City, and a venue in the city at which audiences could attend professional theatre rivaling the caliber of that produced in New York City, corresponded with the work of numerous other well-known members of

800-636: The hip-hop musical Clay , August Wilson's final play in his ten-play cycle Radio Golf , Mary Zimmerman's epic Arabian Nights , a new musical based on Sherwood Anderson's novel Winesburg, Ohio , a new thriller The Borderland , Tennessee Williams classic The Glass Menagerie and the French farce A Flea in Her Ear . Director, producer, and educator Stuart Carden joined KCRep as its fifth Artistic Director in September 2019. He helped establish

832-508: The not-for-profit incorporation of Missouri Repertory Theatre, under the name MRT, Inc. (later changed to Missouri Repertory Theatre, Inc.), formalizing the long-standing partnership between the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Kansas City's civic leaders through the creation of a volunteer board of directors. UMKC provided critical sustaining support in the early years of this new not-for-profit corporation, and it continues to support

864-439: The theater's board of directors, led by William C. Nelson, Kansas City Rep was committed to building on its four-decade tradition, expanding its audience, upgrading and diversifying its range of artists, and extending its repertoire to include new work and large-scale classics. The board of directors voted in 2004 to rename the company Kansas City Repertory Theatre to reflect better its identity, location, and audience. That same year

896-451: The theatre. In October 2020, the company's artistic leader, Peter DuBois, resigned after an inquiry prompted by staff complaints of layoffs , diversity issues, and salary transparency. In February 2022, Loretta Greco was named the company's new artistic director. In January 2023, the company announced that Michael Maso would step down as Managing Director in June 2023, after 41 years with

928-450: The traditions of the company while introducing new dimensions and programming to the theatre. He introduced Rep audiences to such contemporary writers as Athol Fugard , David Mamet and Peter Shaffer , and continued the classic tradition with Shakespeare , Sophocles and Molière . At his retirement in 2000, Keathley had personally directed 49 productions. Costin, who died in 2005, also retired in 2000, after completing thirty-six years at

960-568: Was an American educator and theatre director who was pivotal in the founding of the Missouri Repertory Theatre (known today as the Kansas City Repertory Theatre ) and in the development of Regional Theatre within the area surrounding Kansas City, Missouri . McIlrath was born in El Paso, Texas, to George David McIlrath, a lawyer, and his wife Ethel in 1917. She graduated from Paseo High School in 1933, and received

992-467: Was founded in 1982 by Boston University under President John Silber and Vice President Gerald Gross, and was separately incorporated as an independent non-profit in 1986. Its two prior artistic leaders were Peter Altman (1982 – 2000) and Nicholas Martin (2000 – 2008). Michael Maso has led the Huntington's administrative and financial operations since 1982 as the Managing Director. In 2016, as

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1024-538: Was originally projected to be completed in late 2020. However, the project was delayed by the pandemic, and the renovated theatre reopened in October 2022. The renovation project won an award from the Boston Preservation Alliance. Construction of the 34-story residential tower adjacent to the theatre began in 2022. The tower will include 14,000 square feet of space devoted to a new lobby for

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