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.
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Waco Civic Theatre
The Civic Theatre performs a variety of shows year-round. Local Wacoans, young and old, comprise the cast of each performance, bringing laughter, tears, and the power of story-telling to their community. | Source: Waco Civic Theatre. Accessed July 2, 2024. https://wacocivictheatre.com/.
Baylor's Little Theatre
The Waco Civic Theatre performed in Baylor’s Little Theater from 1948-1951. However, limited space and a growing Baylor theater department meant that the Civic Theatre had to scramble for alternative venues once Baylor decided to no longer allow them to use their theater. | Source: [Baylor--Buildings--Baylor Theater--Studio Theater], 1950-1959. Texas Collection Photographic Archive, Baylor University. Waco, TX. Digital ID: tx-phoarch-pho_gen-bu-bls_000475.
Inaugural Performance
Teahouse of the August Moon was the first play performed in the new theater in May of 1958. The play presents a negative view of the goal of Americanizing territories like Okinawa following World War II, by depicting a captain who assimilated to Okinawan culture instead of imposing American culture on the village like the military had ordered him to. The Waco Civic Theatre has not shied away from plays that deal with controversial topics. | Source: Waco Civic Theatre Records, Accession #2231, Box 6, Folder 25, The Texas Collection, Baylor University.
Award-Winning Design
The unique design of the Waco Civic Theatre allows for many creative forms of staging to be implemented with ease. Actors can perform in front of the audience like in a traditional theater, but they can also use the parterre to perform around the audience. | Source: Richard and Helen Leacroft, Theatre and Playhouse: An Illustrated Survey of Theatre Building from Ancient Greece to the Present Day (London: Methuen, 1984), 205.
Popular Plays
Never Too Late was a comedy on Broadway from 1962-1965 about middle-aged parents who are expecting another child. The Waco Civic Theatre performed this show in September of 1965, just a few months after it came off of Broadway. The Civic Theatre has often chosen to perform shows that are popular in contemporary culture, although they have always mixed in classic plays and musicals as well. | Source: Waco Civic Theatre Records, Accession #2231, Box 6, Folder 37, The Texas Collection, Baylor University.
Children's Theatre
The Frank Baird Children’s Theatre was started in the 1960s, and this is from one of the early children’s productions. The founding of the Children’s Theatre was enabled by an endowment given by Frank Baird in honor of his mother, and they held classes and performances for children grades 1-6 and teenagers grades 7-12. | Source: Waco Civic Theatre Records, Accession #2231, Box 11, Folder 20, The Texas Collection, Baylor University.
Director's Chairs
This picture of the cast of The Music Man in 1992 shows the original “director’s chairs” that audience members used. With folding wood frames and canvas seats, these chairs were relatively inexpensive, easy to rearrange, and put the audience literally in the seat of the director. | Source: Waco Civic Theatre Records, Accession #2231, Box 10, Folder 9, The Texas Collection, Baylor University.
A Real-Life Fairytale
The two leads in this 1992 production of Cinderella, Giles Bateman and Jennifer Zartman, had a real life happily-ever-after. They met for the first time doing this show, and two years later they got married. | Source: Waco Civic Theatre Records, Accession #2231, Box 10, Folder 25, The Texas Collection, Baylor University.
All-Female Cast
The popular 1989 movie Steel Magnolias was adapted from a play, which the Waco Civic Theatre performed two years later. The play took place entirely in the setting of the beauty salon and had an all-female cast. | Source: Waco Civic Theatre Records, Accession #2231, Box 10, Folder 3, The Texas Collection, Baylor University.
Comedic Duo
Barefoot in the Park is a Tony-award-winning comedy that premiered on Broadway in 1963 and was made into a movie in 1967, starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. The play follows the daily struggles of a newly-wed couple living in New York City. Joseph Ginnane and Annette Shirley play the leads in this Waco Civic Theatre production in the 1990s. | Source: Waco Civic Theatre Records, Accession #2231, Box 10, Folder 22, The Texas Collection, Baylor University.
A Reception
Receptions like this one held in the 1980s were opportunities to celebrate the successes of the Waco Civic Theatre and to raise additional support. Because the Civic Theatre is a non-profit, they have to raise the money that they need to put on shows. | Source: Waco Civic Theatre Records, Accession #2231, Box 11, Folder 26, The Texas Collection, Baylor University.
Fundraising
Margaret Barclay Megarity was president of the Waco Civic Theatre in the early 1950s. She brought fresh fundraising ideas that revitalized the organization; the dinner theater shows that she coordinated were wildly successful. | Source: Megarity, Margaret Barclay. Interviewed by Suzanne Durham, March 15, 1976, in Waco, TX. Baylor University Institute for Oral History, Waco, TX. Access full interview here.Member-Driven
The Civic Theatre has always been member-run, with volunteers performing, directing, making costumes, and building sets. | Source: Megarity, Margaret Barclay. Interviewed by Suzanne Durham, March 15, 1976, in Waco, TX. Baylor University Institute for Oral History, Waco, TX. Access full interview here.Cooper Saves the Day
After the Waco Civic Theatre was no longer permitted to use Baylor’s campus and they had venue-hopped for a few years, Madison Cooper donated money from the Cooper Foundation to fund a theater building of their own. | Source: Megarity, Margaret Barclay. Interviewed by Suzanne Durham, March 15, 1976, in Waco, TX. Baylor University Institute for Oral History, Waco, TX. Access full interview here.Actor and Director
Junius Eddy was a member of the Baylor Theater faculty in the 1950s. He and several other members of the Baylor faculty were involved in the Waco Civic Theatre as actors and directors, sharing their expertise with the wider community. | Source: ddy, Junius. Interviewed by Thomas Lee Charlton, August 10, 1990, in Waco, TX. Baylor University Institute for Oral History, Waco, TX. Access full interview here.A Home of its Own
Junius Eddy agreed with Baylor staff and faculty who felt that there was no longer room for the Waco Civic Theatre to continue using Baylor’s class space. The Civic Theatre needed “a home of its own.” | Source: Eddy, Junius. Interviewed by Thomas Lee Charlton, August 10, 1990, in Waco, TX. Baylor University Institute for Oral History, Waco, TX. Access full interview here.A Migrating Theater
Eb Bowles Morrow was on the founding committee of the Waco Civic Theatre in 1947, and he remained on this committee for the next twenty years. For several years, the Civic Theatre used just about any venue that had enough space to hold a show, using the Fort Playhouse most often. | Source: Morrow, Eb Bowles. Interviewed by Kari Vanhoozer, July 10, 1997, in Waco, TX. Baylor University Institute for Oral History, Waco, TX. Access full interview here.