1948: The Footlighters
The Footlighters was born in October, 1948 as a sort of hopeful reincarnation of the Community Players. They made their public debut with Years Ago, presented in the Coe College Little Theater. The season continued with Guest in the House, The Drunkard (a show which was, at least, long on quantity), and Night Must Fall. Amazingly, the Footlighters completed their debut season with seven hundred dollars in the bank!
For the 1949-50 season, the theatre hired Burt French as full-time director, concentrated on its first season ticket drive to build a community-wide audience, and set up a volunteer system to insure community participation in the working organization. Six productions were staged at the YMCA. With the 1950-51 season, John McElhaney succeeded Burt French as director. Somehow, Mike squeezed five ambitious productions on the YMCA Little Theater stage. The Women, however, was produced at Coe College.
In 1951, the Footlighters engaged director Don Tescher. The theater made tremendous progress under Don’s direction and leadership. The quality of Footlighter shows improved with each season and, with it, audience and membership steadily increased. Some 500 people saw Years Ago in 1948. 2,500 people attended Mister Roberts in 1954.
