A Troubled Time

David Chambers, a St. Louisan, returned to his hometown in the fall of 1984 with lofty ideas about what theatre might become in St. Louis. "I want The Rep to be a flagship theatre — a theatre of local, national, even international significance...I hope to open each season with a play that I direct. That will allow us to make a statement to our audience."

According to the press, he intended to put together a new company of illustrious artists, and he carried out a yearlong search for talent in all the dramatic fields.

"I want the theatre to be one of directors and writers...," he said. So, while the 1984-85 season, which Steven Woolf had planned, was drawing a growing audience with such Mainstage productions as A Raisin in the Sun and "Master Harold"...and the Boys, and Waiting for Godot in the Studio, Chambers was assembling his artistic talent.

As the 1985-86 season approached, with new writers, directors and designers on the payroll as consultants, Chambers opened his first full season -- and then changed half the Mainstage plays.

Preparing to premiere a theatrical version of Journey to the Center of the Earth in a spectacular production, the likes of which St. Louis had never seen, and counting on blockbuster ticket sales, he slotted the premiere for the middle of the 1985-86 season. When it was not ready, he postponed it to the season's end. And when it was still not ready, he moved it to 1986-87. The theatre's marketing department was in an uproar; season ticket buyers were bemused and uncomfortable.

The plays had a mixed reception, too. Reviews of Twelfth Night were unfavorable or only politely appreciative. Although some critics praised Under Statements, which marked a milestone in Rep history with female nudity that was either appropriate or gratuitous (depending on who told about it), the play drove major reviewers to outright hostility.

Little Shop of Horrors was a smash! But by the time A Streetcar Named Desire opened in March, almost nobody seemed to care anymore what was happening on the Mainstage.

The Studio, restored to stability during the previous two seasons, unfolded as announced with The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Tom and Viv and Miss Julie Bodiford, which were well-reviewed and popular with the smaller Studio audiences.

At the beginning of Chambers' season, The Rep's board of directors had approved a major addition to the theatre's budget, setting increased revenue goals for both ticket sales and contributions. Having enjoyed the theatre's pleasant surplus in 1984-85, the board was shocked to find its revenue objectives unmet and the theatre half a million dollars in the red at the end of the 1985-86 season. To top it off, thousands of subscribers were not renewing for the 1986-87 season.

The David Chambers era was at an end.