El Centro Theatre
Encyclopedia
El Centro Theatre in Los Angeles, California
has two stages: The Circle (99 seats) and The Chaplin (45 seats). Founded in 1946 and originally named the Circle Theatre, it is located at: 804 N. El Centro Ave.
Hollywood, California 90038
The theatre has changed names many times over the years. It was originally named the Circle Theatre. Then it was known as The Cast under Ted Schmitt, then The Theatre District under Macario Gaxiola, and now The El Centro Theatre.
In 1946, students from UCLA, including William Schallert
, Jerry Epstein, and Kathleen Freeman
, along with Sid Rushakoff, and Sydney Earle Chaplin
, moved from their first location (a friend's living room
) after their successful production of Elmer Rice
's The Adding Machine
. Their new space was a converted corner grocery store at Waring and El Centro Ave., which they named The Circle. The first play to be produced in the new space was Ethan Frome
. Having to clean the rubbish and convert the building into a theatre was a daunting task. Bob Burns
, their lighting genius, coordinated the conversion. Jack Kelly
came by to help out on the work.
The cast of the first show at The Circle:
Ethan Frome
Charlie Chaplin
allowed access to his props for the production.
Antics were common place at The Circle, weekly cushion fights abounded. After the audience left you might have seen Sydney Chaplin
or Bill Schallert pursuing Kathleen Freeman
down the streets, while the children across the street at Hollygrove,(Marilyn Monroe
stayed there as an orphan) watched the mayhem.
The next play to grace The Circle's stage was The Time of Your Life
by William Saroyan
. Sydney was in the show and at the time dating Marilyn Monroe
, bringing her to watch rehearsals. This was the first production that Charlie Chaplin
came to. Next up was Love on the Dole
. Then something amazing happened, William Saroyan
, sent his new script Sam's Ego House and asked if The Circle would consider presenting it. Saroyan made it to the show, along with Mrs. Clifford Odets
and Edward G. Robinson
.
The New Theatre
(now the Chaplin Stage) was built in 1915 as one of the first silent picture movie theater
s in Hollywood. It was later used as an auto mechanics garage with a dirt floor. The Circle Theatre took over and converted the building for its use as a second stage.
In the early 1950s and 60s, George Boroff ran the theatre, sending several plays to Broadway. In 1955 Rachel Rosenthal
created the experimental Instant Theatre in the space.
The theatre changed hands in the mid 1960s and housed many small companies until 1976, when Ted Schmitt took over the space.
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
has two stages: The Circle (99 seats) and The Chaplin (45 seats). Founded in 1946 and originally named the Circle Theatre, it is located at: 804 N. El Centro Ave.
Hollywood, California 90038
The theatre has changed names many times over the years. It was originally named the Circle Theatre. Then it was known as The Cast under Ted Schmitt, then The Theatre District under Macario Gaxiola, and now The El Centro Theatre.
In 1946, students from UCLA, including William Schallert
William Schallert
William Joseph Schallert is an American actor who has appeared in many films and in such television series as The Smurfs, The Rat Patrol, Gunsmoke, The Patty Duke Show, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Waltons, Bonanza, Leave It to Beaver, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Love, American Style, Get...
, Jerry Epstein, and Kathleen Freeman
Kathleen Freeman
Kathleen Freeman was an American film, television, and stage actress. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, she portrayed tart maids, secretaries, teachers, busybodies, nurses, and battle-axe neighbors, almost invariably to comic effect.-Early life:Freeman was born in Chicago, Illinois...
, along with Sid Rushakoff, and Sydney Earle Chaplin
Sydney Earle Chaplin
Sydney Earle Chaplin was a film and theatre actor.-Biography:The third son of Sir Charles Chaplin and the second by his second wife, Mexican-American actress Lita Grey, Sydney Chaplin was named after his uncle Sydney Chaplin .Lita Grey was 16 when she married the 35-year-old Charles Chaplin in 1924...
, moved from their first location (a friend's living room
Living room
A living room, also known as sitting room, lounge room or lounge , is a room for entertaining adult guests, reading, or other activities...
) after their successful production of Elmer Rice
Elmer Rice
Elmer Rice was an American playwright. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his 1929 play, Street Scene.-Early years:...
's The Adding Machine
The Adding Machine
The Adding Machine is a 1923 play by Elmer Rice; it has been called "... a landmark of American Expressionism, reflecting the growing interest in this highly subjective and nonrealistic form of modern drama." The story focuses on Mr. Zero, an accountant at a large, faceless company. After 25 years...
. Their new space was a converted corner grocery store at Waring and El Centro Ave., which they named The Circle. The first play to be produced in the new space was Ethan Frome
Ethan Frome
Ethan Frome is a novel published in 1911 by the Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Edith Wharton. It is set in the fictitious town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, New England, United States...
. Having to clean the rubbish and convert the building into a theatre was a daunting task. Bob Burns
Bob Burns
Bob Burns was an American radio and film comedian during the 1930s and 1940s. Burns, who early in his career was billed as Robert Burns, coined the word bazooka.-Early years:...
, their lighting genius, coordinated the conversion. Jack Kelly
Jack Kelly (actor)
Jack Kelly was an American film and television actor most noted for the role of "Bart Maverick" in the TV series Maverick, which ran on ABC from 1957 to 1962...
came by to help out on the work.
"The entire theatre movement in Los Angeles started in a Hollywood living room. Before that, there were only talent showcases and tired road shows. But it was The Circle Theatre that was the beginning of making Los Angeles a theatre town."- Patterson Greene, Theatre Arts Magazine, June 1961
The cast of the first show at The Circle:
Ethan Frome
| Character | Actor |
|---|---|
| Harmon | Sydney Chaplin |
| A Young Man | George Englund |
| Ethan Frome | William Schallert |
| Zenobia Frome | Kathleen Freeman |
| Denis Eady | Sherridan Hall |
| Mattie Silver | Irene Gordon |
| Jonatham | Larry Salters |
| Ed Varnum | Julian Ludwig |
| Ethel | Jere Silvern |
| George | Charles Chaplin, Jr. Charles Chaplin, Jr. Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. was an American actor and the son of Charlie Chaplin.Chaplin was born in Beverly Hills, California. His mother was Charlie Chaplin's second wife, Mexican-American Lita Grey, and he was the elder brother of actor Sydney Chaplin... |
| Ned Hale | Jack Kelly |
| Ruth Varnum | Gloria Grant |
| Mrs. Hale | Ada Fremont |
Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
allowed access to his props for the production.
Antics were common place at The Circle, weekly cushion fights abounded. After the audience left you might have seen Sydney Chaplin
Sydney Chaplin
Sydney Chaplin was an English actor. He was the elder half-brother of Sir Charlie Chaplin and served as his business manager, and the half-uncle of the actor Sydney Chaplin , who was named after him.-Early life:...
or Bill Schallert pursuing Kathleen Freeman
Kathleen Freeman
Kathleen Freeman was an American film, television, and stage actress. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, she portrayed tart maids, secretaries, teachers, busybodies, nurses, and battle-axe neighbors, almost invariably to comic effect.-Early life:Freeman was born in Chicago, Illinois...
down the streets, while the children across the street at Hollygrove,(Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
stayed there as an orphan) watched the mayhem.
The next play to grace The Circle's stage was The Time of Your Life
The Time of Your Life
The Time of Your Life is a 1939 five-act play by American playwright William Saroyan. The play is the first drama to win both the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The play opened 25 October 1939 at the Booth Theatre in New York City...
by William Saroyan
William Saroyan
William Saroyan was an Armenian American dramatist and author. The setting of many of his stories and plays is the center of Armenian-American life in California in his native Fresno.-Early years:...
. Sydney was in the show and at the time dating Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, singer, model and showgirl who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s....
, bringing her to watch rehearsals. This was the first production that Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
came to. Next up was Love on the Dole
Love on the Dole
Love on the Dole is a novel by Walter Greenwood, about working class poverty in 1930s Northern England. It has been made into both a play and a film.-The novel:...
. Then something amazing happened, William Saroyan
William Saroyan
William Saroyan was an Armenian American dramatist and author. The setting of many of his stories and plays is the center of Armenian-American life in California in his native Fresno.-Early years:...
, sent his new script Sam's Ego House and asked if The Circle would consider presenting it. Saroyan made it to the show, along with Mrs. Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets
Clifford Odets was an American playwright, screenwriter, socialist, and social protester.-Early life:Odets was born in Philadelphia to Romanian- and Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Louis Odets and Esther Geisinger, and raised in Philadelphia and the Bronx, New York. He dropped out of high...
and Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...
.
The New Theatre
New Theatre
New Theatre or New Theater may refer to:In the United Kingdom* The New Theatre , Wales* The New Theatre * The Noël Coward Theatre, London * New Theatre , The University Of Nottingham's student run theatre...
(now the Chaplin Stage) was built in 1915 as one of the first silent picture movie theater
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....
s in Hollywood. It was later used as an auto mechanics garage with a dirt floor. The Circle Theatre took over and converted the building for its use as a second stage.
In the early 1950s and 60s, George Boroff ran the theatre, sending several plays to Broadway. In 1955 Rachel Rosenthal
Rachel Rosenthal
Rachel Rosenthal is an interdisciplinary artist, a teacher, and animal rights activist based in Los Angeles, California. She is also known for her smoothly shaven head. She is best known for her full-length performance art pieces which she has toured, with The Rachel Rosenthal Company, to numerous...
created the experimental Instant Theatre in the space.
The theatre changed hands in the mid 1960s and housed many small companies until 1976, when Ted Schmitt took over the space.