American Theatre Company
Tulsa
“Celebrating 40 Years of Live
Theatre”
Our History
In the summer of 1970 a group of
former University
of Tulsa students under
the leadership and the guiding hand of Ms. Kitty Roberts founded what was
destined to become the American Theatre Company. The theatre was formed to
provide audiences with an alternative to the limited theatre offerings
available at that time in Tulsa
and to develop a professionally oriented theatrical experience with the aim of
establishing a resident professional company. The first season offered a
variety of plays ranging from the very newest off-Broadway works to classics
like Shakespeare's Hamlet. That first season also saw the
theatre's first touring shows going to other cities in Oklahoma
and New Mexico.
The second season found the
theatre moving from their abandoned furniture store at First and Main to the Central Library's Aaronson Auditorium where
they stayed for three seasons. From there ATC moved to a variety of locations
before being named the official resident theatre at Philbrook Art Center
where they premiered the long-running holiday musical A Christmas Carol. With the opening of the Tulsa
Performing Arts Center, ATC had a new home and is one of the few, if not the
only, performing arts groups to have utilized all of the performing spaces in
the building. During these years ATC continued to offer touring shows all over
the state and educational workshops in schools throughout Oklahoma.
In the late 1970s, ATC became the
only nationally recognized resident professional theatre in Oklahoma. In 1979 ATC began doing shows in
their "second stage" at the Brook Theatre which they had converted
into a legitimate theatre. The Brook and ATC are credited with, if not
starting, at least greatly helping the start of the revitalization of Brookside. ATC occupied the Brook for eight years before
consolidating the season again at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center.
After 39 seasons of offering
Tulsa and Oklahoma shows ranging from Hamlet
to Rocky Horror, Peter Pan to
Greater Tuna, Hedda Gabler to
Candida, 0 Tulsa! to Bye, Bye Birdie, The
Boys in the Band to Treasure
Island, Tartuffe to Vanities, The Diary of Anne Frank to Romeo and Juliet, Driving
Miss Daisy to LuAnn Hampton
Laverty Oberlander, 5th of July to
Ah, Wilderness!, Ms. Raccoon's Profession to Joyce Martel, the American Theatre Company
continues to strive to present great stories well told.