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 (abbreviated to the Library Theatre on this page) in 1971.1971
- 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 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 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 the Library Theatre is based. The Libraries Committee is unamused.
- 5 August: Howard Brenton's Revenge opens 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.
Article by Simon Murgatroyd. Copyright: Haydonning Ltd. Please do not reproduce this article without permission of the copyright holder.