The Playhouse Theatre
Houston, Harris County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The Playhouse Theatre, built in 1950 at 4816 Main Street, was the brainchild of stage manager Joanna Albus and attorney William Rozan. It was one of the first theatres in the country specifically constructed for “theatre in the round,” a concept that enables the audience to surround the players, who perform on a central stage. Architect Benjamin Greenwood’s unique design featured a circular space with 300 seats situated around a twenty-two foot circular stage with a revolving mechanism. Albus and Rozan were producers and managing directors, and also headed the investment group. The duo planned to operate the theatre year-round with performance runs tailored to public response. Performances included six weekly evening shows and matinees on Saturday and Sunday. Other uses included lectures, musicals and dance events on free evenings. The playhouse opened on February 21, 1951 with a performance of the comedy Candlelight. For the next three years, the company continued to turn out high quality productions. Distinguished American playwright and director Tennessee Williams directed Donald Windham’s The Starless Air in 1953. Despite good reviews, high overhead began to eat into profits, forcing Albus and Rozan to close the theatre in 1954. Several later owners kept it open as either a live performance venue or a movie house until 2004, when the National African American Museum was opened inside the space. The playhouse earned international recognition and sparked an evolution of arena-type venues and other theatres in Houston, some of which still exist today.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Opened on Houston's Main Street in 1951, The Playhouse Theatre was among the first buildings in the country designed specifically for "theatre in the round," seating 300 spectators encircling a revolving central stage. Producers Joanna Albus and William Rozan mounted high-quality productions here, and in 1953 the playwright Tennessee Williams himself directed a premiere on its stage. Rising costs forced the original company to close in 1954, but later owners kept the space alive as a theater and cinema until it became the National African American Museum in 2004.
Why it matters
The Playhouse helped launch the arena-stage movement in American theater, showing how postwar Houston nurtured bold experiments in the arts that influenced venues far beyond Texas.
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Related people
- · Joanna Albus
- · William Rozan
- · Tennessee Williams
- · Benjamin Greenwood
Themes & tags
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