Introduction: Motivations and Beginnings

So much has changed in American regional theatre (and entertainment as a whole) since 1973, the year of the publication of Joseph Wesley Zeigler’s Regional Theatre: The Revolutionary Stage—the only book dedicated to the history of regional theatre. The title alone signifies how much time has passed: to consider regional theatre “revolutionary” certainly reads as a dated perception, especially since the Cleveland Play House just celebrated its centennial anniversary. As a result of its limited perspective, Zeigler’s book reads more like a travelogue rather than an insightful analysis of how the regional theatre movement of the 1950s and 1960s flourished. Throughout his work, Zeigler provides a few sentences about how notable institutions began and then offers multiple paragraphs recounting the various productions he viewed at any given theatre. While giving scant attention to the limited number of major theatre companies that existed in the early 1970s, he dedicates entire chapters to two theatres, Actors Workshop (founded in San Francisco in 1952 and closed in 1968) and Guthrie Theatre, only the latter of which can be argued to have any lasting impact on the development of contemporary American theatre. Nevertheless, Zeigler’s book was a revelation for many interested in pursuing a life in theatre, and his work deserves credit for educating and inspiring many professionals, including Susan Medak, former managing director at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. “I was given this book by Joseph Ziegler [titled] Regional Theatre, and I will tell you, I read that, and it was like a bible to me…” Medak recalled. “It opened up something for me, that book. I kept it like it was the Old Testament for years.”1 Zeigler’s work contributed to the increasing shift away from the Great White Way, but, in hindsight, it was only a start as the field of regional theatre has grown immensely since Zeigler’s contribution.