Commercial Success
-
A scene from William Shakespeare's The Tempest in 1980, during 7 Stages' first production year.
Courtesy of Georgia State University. Libraries, 7 Stages Theatre (Atlanta, Ga.) Records (M219).
-
A program cover for The Miser, a play by the French playwright Moliere.
Courtesy of Georgia State University. Libraries, 7 Stages Theatre (Atlanta, Ga.) Records (M219).
-
A poster advertising the play Three Sisters by modern Russian playwright and dramatic master Anton Chekhov.
Courtesy of Georgia State University. Libraries, 7 Stages Theatre (Atlanta, Ga.) Records (M219).
-
A scene from Samuel Beckett's contemporary classic Endgame. Produced in 1995, the play is one of many Beckett works that 7 Stages has performed over its forty-year history.
Courtesy of Georgia State University. Libraries, 7 Stages Theatre (Atlanta, Ga.) Records (M219).
Classical productions are the bread-and-butter of any theater company. These popular plays provided 7 Stages the financial security to stage more experimental and politically adventurous productions. In their first year of operation, Allen and Hamilton staged William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, as well as The Tooth of Crime by Sam Shepard, who had won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama earlier that year. Within their first decade, roughly half of the theater's performances came from well-known playwrights like Bertolt Brecht, Jean Racine, Samuel Beckett, and of course, Shakespeare. The financial security afforded by these productions created space for more boundary-pushing plays and forums for community discussion.