Eating dinner prior to watching community theater, Topeka
Address:
3028 S.W. 8th, Topeka, KS 66604 [map this location]
Website:
www.topekacivictheatre.com
Phone Number:
785.357.5213
Topeka Civic Theatre exterior lit up at night. Photo courtesy SlabImaging.
Photo courtesy Wallace Photography
A wonderful dining experience awaits you before you enjoy a production. Photo: Mark Rapp.
Beauty and the Beast, photo courtesy Wallace Photography
Photo courtesy SlabImaging
Custom: Eating dinner before theatre!
Where to do this
custom: Topeka
Civic Theatre has the nation's oldest, continuously running community dinner
theatre!
THE
HISTORY
Founded
in 1936, Topeka Civic Theatre is the oldest, continuously, running community
dinner theatre in the country. In July of 1999, Topeka Civic Theatre and
Academy completed construction of a new home in the former Gage Elementary School.
The school was built around 1929 and is rich in architecture and design. The
2009 season marks the 74th season.
TCTA also has an incredible youth academy, training young and old actors, and growing a new crop of artists to expand the arts in northeast Kansas. The Stepping Stones Curriculum breaks down acting technique into a group of skills including Characterization, Scene Study, and Improvisation. Summer theatre camps round out the year in an old elementary school bursting with budding thespians.
TCTA also has an incredible youth academy, training young and old actors, and growing a new crop of artists to expand the arts in northeast Kansas. The Stepping Stones Curriculum breaks down acting technique into a group of skills including Characterization, Scene Study, and Improvisation. Summer theatre camps round out the year in an old elementary school bursting with budding thespians.
MAKING
THE CLAIM
In 2001,
Theatre USA
published a booklet with the cooperation of the American Association of
Community Theatres and the City of Detroit Department of Recreation. Community
theatres in America
were researched through a survey and conclusions were put in a book from those
that responded. The book, Millennium Theatres, Discovering Community
Theatre's Future by Exploring its Past, provided a wealth of information.
Profiles were collected
from more than 180 theatres. Eighty-seven were fifty years or older. The oldest
is Footlight club/Eliot Hall in Jamaica
Plain, Massachusetts.
It's 128 years old and was founded in 1877. Sixty are as old or older than the
Topeka Civic Theatre. However, there is no documentation that shows that any of
these community theatres double as a dinner theatre for as long and as
continuous as the Topeka Civic Theatre. In fact, it is more common for dinner
theatres to be professional theatres than community theatres.
SEE A
VARIETY OF SHOWS
Enjoy new
hit comedies, cutting-edge dramas, and beloved Broadway musicals with
year-round dinner and non-dinner shows. To get tickets, click here or call
785.357.5211.
Since 1936, our theatre has been producing heart-warming, toe-tapping, song-humming shows. Our shows range from comedies to dramas to musicals to cutting-edge new works. Children perform for children, and adults provide family entertainment in Theatre for Young Audiences. Readers theatre brings back the radio plays of the 30s, 40s and 50s. Comedy improv is performed at its best by young adults, teens, and senior citizens.
THE SCHEDULE FOR 2009 DINNER THEATRE PRODUCTIONS
Since 1936, our theatre has been producing heart-warming, toe-tapping, song-humming shows. Our shows range from comedies to dramas to musicals to cutting-edge new works. Children perform for children, and adults provide family entertainment in Theatre for Young Audiences. Readers theatre brings back the radio plays of the 30s, 40s and 50s. Comedy improv is performed at its best by young adults, teens, and senior citizens.
THE SCHEDULE FOR 2009 DINNER THEATRE PRODUCTIONS
Be My
Baby - Sept 12-
Oct 3, 2009
Black
Coffee - Oct
23-Nov 7, 2009
It's a
Wonderful Life -
Nov 27-Dec 20, 2009
Nobody's
Perfect -
Jan 15-Feb 6, 2010
Curtains - March 5-April 3, 2010
Taming
of the Shrew
- April 23-May 8, 2010
Laughter
on the 23rd Floor
- May 28-June 19, 2010
Fiddler
on the Roof -
July 16-Aug 14, 2010
In between most of these
shows is a week-end of Laughing Matters comedy improv!
Get reservations now for
a late night New Year's eve show this year and late night Valentine shows on
Feb. 13, 2010.
TAKE A
PUBLIC TOUR!
Also, year round (at least one a month) public tours and educational programming take place. The tours are called Stage Door Sneak Peek. It's a one-hour presentation. People are asked to sign up in advance or these tours can be scheduled upon request. Sometime the groups even get to see a little bit of a rehearsal, see the backstage, or walk onstage. The schedule for this season's Stage Door Sneak Peek is:
Also, year round (at least one a month) public tours and educational programming take place. The tours are called Stage Door Sneak Peek. It's a one-hour presentation. People are asked to sign up in advance or these tours can be scheduled upon request. Sometime the groups even get to see a little bit of a rehearsal, see the backstage, or walk onstage. The schedule for this season's Stage Door Sneak Peek is:
Sept. 8,
7 p.m.
Oct 6, 7
p.m.
Nov 11, 7
p.m.
Jan 5, 7
p.m.
Feb 3, 7
p.m.
Mar 2, 7
p.m.
April 7,
7 p.m.
May 18, 7
p.m.
June 9, 7
p.m.
July 6, 7
p.m.
Aug 18, 7 p.m.
IT'S
QUALITY THEATRE, TOO!
In 1975,
Managing Director Don Bachmann's production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's
Nest won the state community theatre festival and advanced to the regional
in Omaha. In
1979, Bachmann's production of The Good Doctor, starring Charley
Oldfather, went all the way to National, won it, and represented the United
States at an international amateur theatre festival the following spring in
Dundalk, Ireland. In 1981, P.K. Worley's production of Jacques Brel Is Alive
and Well and Living in Paris won the state festival and was performed at
the regional in Topeka.
Terrance McKerrs took two productions to nationals, I'm Getting My Act
Together and Taking It on the Road in 1985, which won third place, and The
Taffetas in 1991, which won second place, while McKerrs won the "Best
Director" award.
Source: Carole Ries
Source: Carole Ries
978 Arapaho Rd
Inman, KS 67546
Phone: 620-585-2374
Phone: 620-585-2374