History of Our Theatres
An aerial view of the OSF campus. The Allen Pavilion is left with the Elizabethan Stage peeking up from the back, the Angus Bowmer Theatre is to the right of the Pavilion, and the New Theatre is across Pioneer Street next to Carpenter Hall. Photo by David Cooper.
From 1935 through 1969, the Festival almost exclusively produced Shakespeare. Attendance skyrocketed in the 1960s and record numbers of people were turned away. With limited capacity for seating and revenue, it became necessary to build a new theater. With the opening of the Angus Bowmer Theatre in 1970, the season expanded into the spring and fall, and new repertory was developed, adding Western classics to the playbill. In 1977 a small black box space, the Black Swan, was designed in an existing building on Pioneer Street. The space provided an opportunity for the company to present old and new plays that were not performed frequently as they were deemed risky or unpopular. Eventually, the Black Swan was consistently more than 95 percent of capacity, so in 2002, the state-of-the-art New Theatre opened.
Richard L. Hay makes preparations for the new Angus Bowmer Theatre in 1969.
A discussion of OSF’s theatres would not be complete without a section dedicated to Richard L. Hay, OSF’s senior theatre and scenic designer. His creative work has spanned more than 50 years at OSF and includes more than 200 stage sets and the design of all three theatre spaces, beginning with the current Elizabethan Stage in 1959, half a century ago.