Theatre at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has a long history. Records trace the founding of a drama club to 1896. This drama club was reformed in 1921 and again in 1929. The best record we have is dated November 25, 1929 and states: "The first regular meeting of the R.P.I. Dramatic Club was held Tuesday, Nov. 25, 1929 in the Proudfit Building." And thus a club was born. The meeting minutes dated March 12, 1930 also contain a significant point in the club's history: "The question of a name for the club was brought up and a motion was passed to call it hereafter "The R.P.I. Players". These records exists today, as excerpted from the handwritten meeting minutes of the club. Throughout our history, the R.P.I. Players have inhabited several locations. Three of these locations are buildings that we have occupied the longest and considered our homes.

Old Gymnasium

The Old Gymnasium was located at 707 Broadway, just south of the Main Building. This location may not be immediately familiar to you, but to locate it, you need to visit the Approach. The Approach was built on the site of the old Main Building, which was destroyed by the 1904 fire in Troy. At the base of the Approach, and to the left is where you would have found the Old Gymnasium. Built in 1887, it was used as a gymnasium by R.P.I. until 1912. From 1912 to 1929, it was a Masonic Lodge and meeting space for other Troy city organizations. Currently, the site is a parking lot for the Rensselaer County government offices.

The R.P.I. Players became tenants of the Old Gym in 1929 and remained there until 1948. In 1948, the building was condemned by the City of Troy and vacated. The R.P.I. Players moved into the 15th Street Lounge while R.P.I. made extensive repairs to the Old Gym. The return to the Old Gym occurred in November 1950 with the production Born Yesterday. Through many years of conversions and upgrades to the equipment and facilities, the Old Gym served as home to the organization until 1965 when the R.P.I. Players moved to their second home, the 15th Street Lounge. The Old Gym was razed in 1966 as part of an urban revitalization plan that was to place a major north-south roadway through downtown Troy. This roadway ended up being built on the other side of the Hudson River in Watervliet (West Troy) and is known as Interstate 787 today.

15th Street Lounge

Also known as Lounge 15, the building was an old USO hall that was purchased from the Army after World War II. It was located on the opposite side of 15th Street from the Armory, just south of the Quadrangle Dorms and Russell Sage Jr. Dining Hall. The building was first inhabited by the R.P.I. Players during the 1948 - 1949 and 1949 - 1950 seasons while repairs were performed on the Old Gym. The 15th Street Lounge became the permanent home of the R.P.I. Players in the middle of the 1965 - 1966 season with the production of A Slow Dance On The Killing Ground. The building was shared by R.P.I. Players and other campus organizations including WRPI, the Outing Club, the Fencing Club, the International Club, the Band, Orchestra and Glee Clubs for concerts and recitals as well as a location for worship on Sundays.

Like in the Old Gym, the R.P.I. Players found it necessary to modify the interior spaces of the building to suit their needs. Modifications of the facility continued until the 1982 - 1983 season when a building renovation commenced. Displaced from their home, the R.P.I. Players managed to still produce a season of shows by performing in other campus locations including the McNeil Room of the RPI Student Union and the West Hall auditorium.

RPI Playhouse

In November of 1983, the newly renovated R.P.I. Playhouse opened with a production of West Side Story. The building that you see around you is the result of the renovation of the 15th Street Lounge. Some additional spaces, like the costume shop and set shop were added to the building during the renovation, expanding the footprint of the building. This facility has been home to the R.P.I. Players for several years and will be the home for several more years to come.

Like past homes, the R.P.I. Playhouse has been modified to suit the needs of R.P.I. Players. The building is always a work in progress and will always be changing.

Notes

Researching the history of an organization with a life spanning multiple decades is not an easy task. The question I asked - what shows has R.P.I. Players produced in its history? - was a simple one. The answers were anything but simple. Sources for information abound. But what is the quality of the information they provide?

Looking at the walls of our lobby, you will see posters for past productions. The earliest poster, My Three Angels, dates to the 1954 - 1955 season. Our most recent poster dates to Spring of 2001. But the posters hanging on the walls are not a complete set of all the shows R.P.I. Players has performed. Posters that appear on the walls are denoted by a (Ý) on the history list.

A search of past programs given out to patrons at the shows (called "At The Playhouse") verified most of the list. However, information from 1929 to 1937 is scant. The first program that we have indicating a show number is Ceiling Zero in 1937. It was the 39th show that R.P.I. Players presented. Information on show numbers one to thirty eight is incomplete. The programs from the 10th and 15th Anniversary seasons included lists recapping what shows R.P.I. Players had performed since 1929. The lists, however, do not agree in order and there are discrepancies in the shows performed.

The meeting minutes from the past do not contain this information. From the meeting minutes, it is reasonable to assume that show numbers one thru ten were performed in that order. Show numbers 12 thru 33 also appear to be in the correct order based on meeting minutes. But there is no mention of the R.P.I. Players sponsored one acts contests for local high schools in the meeting minutes. There is also discrepancy in the order of shows presented and whether or not some shows were presented by R.P.I. Players, or with R.P.I. Players support.

The best source of information on the early history of R.P.I. Players can be found at the school library in the Fixman Archives on the third floor. It was there that I was able to look thru a lot of old papers and photographs from the R.P.I. Players and old issues of The Polytechnic which was sufficient to determine the order of the first thirty eight shows.

Based on these sources, I feel confidant that the list of shows provided here is in the correct order. I did not attempt to research any history prior to 1929. Part of this decision was based on the lack of information from the early years. Another, larger part is that this is a list of the modern organization that is R.P.I. Players, founded in 1929. The lack of accurate records was a detriment to the research from the early years. It was also sad to see that recordkeeping in the 1980's and early 1990's was almost as bad.

If you know of any changes, omissions or errors in this listing, do not hesitate to call it to the attention of R.P.I. Players

Researching the history of R.P.I. Players has been a crapshoot, but I feel that I have won. In the process I have learned a lot about the people that were and are the R.P.I. Players. The members from decades ago were much like the members of years ago and much like the members of today. There is a dedication to theatre, to the building and to the production that is apparent from 1929 until now. I know that this dedication will keep burning bright for years to come.

- Kristopher Nasadowski, September 17, 1999
     Updated, September 25, 2001

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