The Phoenix Theatre Company is a professional

theatre company Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

located in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

. Started in 1920 by a theatre troupe known as the Phoenix Players, the theatre is among the oldest continually operating theaters west of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

. The theatre is a non-profit corporation and encompasses both the Mainstage and Hormel Theatre productions, as well as Partners That Heal and numerous community-focused programs.

History

The Phoenix Little Theatre was founded by

Harry Behn Harry Behn (September 24, 1898September 6, 1973) was an American screenwriter and children's author. He was involved in writing scenes and continuities for a number of screenplays, including the war film ''The Big Parade ''in 1925, and '' Hel ...

and

Maie Bartlett Heard Maie Bartlett Heard (1868–1951) was an Arizona-based collector and philanthropist, who cofounded the Heard Museum of native American art. Background Born on June 11, 1868, in Chicago, to parents Adolphus C. Bartlett and Mary Pitkin. Her fathe ...

(who also founded the

Heard Museum The Heard Museum is a private, not-for-profit museum in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art. It presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, as well as exhibitio ...

) as the Phoenix Players in 1920—joining into the

Little Theatre Movement As the new medium of cinema was beginning to replace theater as a source of large-scale spectacle, the Little Theatre Movement developed in the United States around 1912. The Little Theatre Movement served to provide experimental centers for the dra ...

of that time. Four years later, it moved into the Heard family's coach house at Central and McDowell Roads. In 1928, the theatre applied for its

articles of incorporation Article often refers to: * Article (grammar), a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness * Article (publishing), a piece of nonfictional prose that is an independent part of a publication Article may also refer to: G ...

and by its eighth season boasted 424 members. By 1940, the theatre had close to 1,000 members and remained operational throughout

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The theatre moved into its current home, within a municipal cultural complex that included the

Phoenix Art Museum The Phoenix Art Museum is the largest museum for visual art in the southwest United States. Located in Phoenix, Arizona, the museum is . It displays international exhibitions alongside its comprehensive collection of more than 18,000 works of ...

and the

Phoenix Public Library The Phoenix Public Library is a municipal library system serving Phoenix, Arizona, and operated by the city of Phoenix. There are 16 branches currently in operation citywide, anchored by the flagship Burton Barr Central Library on the northern edg ...

, in 1951. In 1954, the theatre began its Children's Theatre. In 1985, the "Little" was dropped from the name, leaving it simply the "Phoenix Theatre." In 2019, the organization was renamed officially as The Phoenix Theatre Company.

References

External links

Phoenix Theatre

History

References

External links

Further reading