Organic Theater Company was founded in 1969 in Madison, Wisconsin by artistic director Stuart Gordon and his wife Carolyn Purdy Gordon.
History
Its first play was a production of Richard III but harassment from the local officials of Madison caused the production to be moved to three different venues before closing. In 1970 at the invitation of Paul Sills, Organic moved to Chicago where Sills helped the theater find a home in the Holy Covenant Church where they produced original adaptations of George Orwell's Animal Farm and Homer's Odyssey. When Sills took his production of Story Theater to Los Angeles that summer he invited Organic to produce at his Body Politic Theater on Lincoln Avenue. The company ended up staying there over three years where it produced Candide which was invited by Joseph Papp to the Public Theater in New York. They also produced Poe by playwright Stephen Most and Warp! by Stuart Gordon and Bury St. Edmund(pseudonym for Lenny Kleinfeld), an original science-fiction epic adventure in three parts. Warp! was produced on Broadway at the Ambassador Theater in 1973.[1]
In 1981 Organic renovated the Buckingham Theater on Clark Street where it worked with author Mary Renault to adapt her book The King Must Die to the stage. This was followed by a musical adaptation of William Kotzwinkle's book Dr. Rat by June Shellene and Richard Fire and the company's longest running show E/R conceived by Dr. Ronald Berman.
Productions
Notable productions during founding artistic director Stuart Gordon's leadership included:
Bleacher Bums concept by Joe Mantegna, (there was also production for WTTW television that aired in 1979)
E/R Emergency Room by Zaid Farid, Richard Fire, Stuart Gordon, Gary Houston, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, Tom Towles, Bruce A. Young and Dr. Ronald Berman, who suggested the concept of the play. It later became a television series E/R in 1984, with Bruce A. Young and Shuko Akune reprising their roles from the Organic production.
After “E/R Emergency Room,” Stuart Gordon went to the west coast to make his cult classic sci-fi film "Re-Animator".
Artistic directors after Stuart Gordon included Thomas Riccio[2] and Richard Fire. In 1996 Organic Theater Company and Touchstone Theatre merged under the leadership of Touchstone’s artistic director Ina Marlowe. (For two years the organization did business as Organic Touchstone but is now known again as Organic Theater Company.)
Notable productions during artistic director Ina Marlowe’s leadership included:
The Steward of Christendom by Sebastian Barry, director Ina Marlowe worked closely with Irish playwright Sebastian Barry on this Midwest premiere
An American Daughter by Wendy Wasserstein, director Ina Marlowe worked closely with playwright Wendy Wasserstein (including significant rewrites) on this Midwest premiere
Belfry by Billy Roche, director Ina Marlowe worked closely with Irish playwright Billy Roche on this American premiere (of both the play and the playwright’s work)
