Around 1850, Mormons founded the Deseret Playhouse, and by 1874 the Aurora Drama Guild in Illinois and the Concord Players in Massachusetts, the latter founded by Louisa May Alcott, were well underway. WLT is part of an American cultural development born early in the 20th century and known as the Little Theatre Movement.Īmateur theatre has a long history in America. True, there are but 97 seats in the place, but that’s only part of the story. I suspect that most of you assume that the word “Little” in WLT’s name refers to the number of seats in the theatre. We both found a “second family” at the old train station on Boscawen Street. It is one of the many blessings he bequeathed me. Martin got me involved again after we moved to Winchester and retired from our day jobs, through his own interest in learning about theatrical lighting and sound design. I went away to college, then moved to New York, which was about as far from Omaha as I could get without crossing an ocean, and my life took me in other directions. My mother was not happy when she discovered that I was “hanging around with actors,” and so my involvement ended after a few months. If this scene is familiar to anyone in room tonight, you are a member of WLT’s family. They came home to star in a special performance of The Country Girl launching a fundraising campaign to replace the old barnlike theater, where actors who exited at stage left emerged directly onto an open deck in the middle of a Nebraska winter. It was a lot more interesting than school, and we even got the chance to meet Henry Fonda and Dorothy McGuire, Omahans who got their start at the Playhouse. We helped build and dress sets and locate props. Unbeknownst to our parents, we volunteered to work backstage. My interest in community theatre began in 1951, when a friend and I, two bored and out-of-the-loop high school juniors, discovered the Omaha Community Playhouse. Eighty-five Years of Community Theatre in Winchester
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