Waco Civic Theatre

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The Waco Civic Theatre has brought culture and entertainment to the city of Waco for a century. It began as the Waco Little Theatre in 1925. The theater was founded by Mrs. Jean Fort, daughter-in-law of William Fort of the historic Fort House. The Waco Little Theatre performed in a variety of venues with no permanent theater of their own, and in 1936 they disbanded. In 1945, Paul Baker, then chair of the theater department at Baylor University, decided to revive the Waco Little Theatre and rename it the Waco Civic Theatre.

The Waco Civic Theatre performed their first play in 1947. The theater utilized Baylor’s Little Theater until 1951, after which they were no longer permitted to use Baylor’s campus due to space constraints. Following this setback, they performed primarily in the Fort Playhouse until it burned down in 1955. Like its early days as Waco Little Theatre, the Civic Theatre was once again nomadic, performing wherever they could find a space, but it became increasingly evident that they needed their own building if they were to survive long-term. Paul Baker contacted James Hull Miller, a theater architect who designed the building that now stands on Lake Air Drive. Funded by the Cooper Foundation, Baker and Hull collaborated on designing a theater that would be versatile, ignoring the typically stark divide between stage and audience, actors and viewers. Some early notes on the new theater’s design stated that “at Waco the stage can be anywhere and everywhere, and due to the unique floor design, the stage includes the audience.” Miller’s goal was to create a space that was small and flexible enough to be relatively low budget but capable of a wide variety of high-quality shows. Construction began in 1957, and the new building opened in May the following year. The inaugural play of the new theater was called The Teahouse of the August Moon, a play published in 1953 about the US occupation of Okinawa.

The new theater’s unique design won awards for its ingenuity and versatility. The book Theatre and Playhouse: An Illustrated Survey of Theatre Building from Ancient Greece to the Present Day by Richard and Helen Leacroft includes the Waco Civic Theatre in its chapter about flexible theaters, noting its ability to accommodate many different types of staging. Seating was comprised of 150 chairs that could easily be rearranged. Baker wanted the audience to be seated in “director’s chairs” made of wood frames and canvas seats to further integrate the audience into the production of the play. Actors could easily enter through the audience, and a parterre that encircled the orchestra pit and seating extended the stage into and around the audience. An open-grid ceiling unified the space and concealed the source of lighting used in productions. The Waco Civic Theatre even received recognition from the Royal Institute of British Architects, who counted it among the top three most versatile theaters in America.

The Civic Theatre has always been comprised of volunteer actors, actresses, and directors, who commit their free time to rehearsals and performances. While most shows were primarily performed by adults in their early history with perhaps a few children for specific roles, a separate Children’s Theatre was created in 1966, which had classes and performances specifically for children and teenagers. Shows from a wide range of genres with actors and actresses of all ages continue to be performed there today. The Waco Civic Theatre has brought the Waco community together through the art of theater for a century, and it continues to provide an outlet for Wacoans to learn, perform, and be entertained.