Building the House

Abstract

The seminal work on the history of regional theatre remains by default Joseph Wesley Zeigler’s Regional Theater, despite the fact that it was published in 1973 and obviously fails to chart the many developments that have occurred since that time.¹ Zeigler’s book is an interesting collection of research into the origins of many well-known regional theatres peppered with personal anecdotes and opinions on the various productions that he and others witnessed at these institutions. While often an insightful and amusing read, the book remains incomplete not only because of its limited information concerning contemporary developments, but also because it favors a few theatres while disregarding others that played an equally important role in the development of American theatre. In terms of charting the foundations of many of these institutions, Zeigler sufficiently details the development of the more well-known theatres by recounting the principal artists and the challenges that they faced, namely locating spaces, finding financial backers, attracting audiences, and the transition from amateur to professional status. Predictably, Zeigler recognized several of the nation’s most famous theatres—the Alley Theatre in Houston, the Arena Stage in Washington, and the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, all received a detailed description of their foundations while an entire chapter was dedicated to the renowned Guthrie Theater.