SCT History

Springfield Contemporary Theatre, Inc. was created in 2009 as the non-profit producing and managing arm of the Vandivort Center Theatre. Springfield Contemporary Theatre is dedicated to upholding the high standards of theatre that audiences have come to expect at the Vandivort since its first production in 1995. SCT is also dedicated to the production of new and original works as well as works that can be re-energized through a contemporary view while using outstanding directors, local actors and guest professionals throughout the season.

Built in 1908 as a private Masonic meeting hall and induction facility, the Vandivort Center Theatre was renovated and opened in 1995 by Louis H. Schaeffer. The space has been designed to have flexibility in performance arrangements and an intimate actor to audience relationship. The Vandivort Center Theatre has served as an exciting live theatrical venue that operates year round putting shows on stage thirty to forty weekends out of the year. The VCT has served as a principle performance venue for the Ozark House Concert Series, MSU Baird Project Student Productions and Good Company for All Ages. Many plays and musicals have had their world premieres at the Vandivort including: Emma, The Magical Adventures of Jack McPoorly–or–Climb Every Beanstalk, The Penelope Blues, Pitch, The Maelstrom, Dear John: A New Revelation, The CASA Project, The Nutley Papers: The Musical, Dawg Pound Blues and Little Vegas. The VCT has become known as a home to regional productions of major works such as Hair, How I Learned to Drive, Angels in America–Part One: Millennium Approaches, Oleanna, The Laramie Project, Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women, Bat Boy: The Musical, Bent, Master Class, Urinetown: The Musical, The Pillowman, Doubt: A Parable, Striking 12 and Bug. In recent years, the company has also been co-producing plays and musicals outside of the Vandivort Center Theatre, in assorted downtown Springfield locations: “All World Stages,” with Bryan Moses; “About Town Dinner Theatre,” with John and Jane Sellars; “Vandivort 2nd Stage,” with Todd Turoci.

Also since 2000, The theatre developed a relationship with Actors’ Equity Association and started using professional actors appearing under a Special Appearance Contract. This heightens the audiences’ experience and provides local actors the opportunity of working with guest professionals. Other SCT actors have gone on to work professionally as members of Actor’s Equity. Some of the professional actors who have appeared at the Vandivort are (in alphabetical order):
Andrew C. Call (Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show 2001, Kiss of the Spider Woman: The Musical) appeared on Broadway in Green Day’s American Idiot, Cry-Baby, High Fidelity and Glory Days.
Kim Crosby (The Light in the Piazza) currently on tour with Cathy Rigby in Peter Pan, Kim has appeared on the New York stage and in regional productions of Into The Woods, Guys and Dolls, Follies and Jerry’s Girls.
Lucas Grabeel (Grease!) film actor appeared in “Milk” and the series of Disney’s “High School Musical.”
Mark Irish (Amadeus, Nine: The Musical, Dinner With Friends) has appeared in numerous regional houses in and around the New York area as well as TV appearances on “Nurse Jackie” and daytime soap operas.
Herman Johansen (American Buffalo, Death Defying Acts) a featured actor and director working in several Kansas City area theaters.
Jack Laufer (Edward Albee’s The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?) a featured actor on the New York stage, The Immigrant, on film, “Lost in Yonkers” and on TV in "Mad Men," “Huff,” “Cold Case” and “CSI.”
Kyle Dean Massey (Stephen Sondheim’s Putting It Together, Cabaret) New York-based actor who appeared on Broadway in the Pulitzer-winning Next To Normal in addition to Xanadu and Wicked.
Doug Nuttleman (Angels in America–Part One: Millennium Approaches) Equity actor working in regional theatre and Production Manager for the Great Plains Theatre in Kansas.
Antuan Raimone (The Kiss of the Spider Woman:The Musical) New York stage actor seen on Broadway in In The Heights.
Rusty Sneary (Angels in America, The House of Yes, Frozen) a featured actor working mainly in the Kansas City area and producer of The Living Room, a fine arts venue in KC’s Crossroads Arts District.
David Schmittou (Lend Me a Tenor, Dinner With Friends, All My Sons) a busy New York-based actor who received the Kevin Kline award in St. Louis for his leading role performance in The Drowsy Chaperone.
Vanessa Severo (P.S. Your Cat is Dead!, Hedwig and the Angry Inch) a busy Kansas City based actress working throughout the KC area and regionally.

PRODUCTION HISTORY

2012
The Seafarer ✦ Love Letters ✦ MSU’s Inertia Dance Company ✦ Evita ✦ Enron

2011
Julie Bunny Must Die! ✦ MSU’s Inertia Dance Company ✦ Lend Me a Tenor ✦ My First Time ✦ Amadeus ✦ Sheer Will ✦ Educating Rita ✦ No Sex Please, We're British ✦ Rabbit Hole ✦ Glengarry Glen Ross ✦ Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps

2010
Bug ✦ The Light in the Piazza ✦ Talk Radio ✦ Reefer Madness: The Musical ✦ The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) ✦ Out of Order ✦ Song of Singapore ✦ The Cripple of Inishmaan ✦ Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show ✦ The Secret Garden

2009
Speech & Debate ✦ Doubt: A Parable ✦ Love Notes: Carol Reinert ✦ The Vagina Monologues ✦ Blackout Sketch Comedy: The 2009 Spring Collection ✦ The God Committee ✦ columbinus ✦ Dinner With Friends ✦ Loot ✦ Disney’s High School Musical 2 ✦ All My Sons ✦ Evil Dead: The Musical ✦ Striking 12

2008
Cabaret Concerts: Todd & Ali Smith ✦ Romance/ Romance ✦ The Pillowman ✦ Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris ✦ Art of Murder ✦ Tintypes ✦ Little Vegas ✦ The Baby Boomer’s Guide to the Galaxy ✦ Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ✦ Psycho Beach Party ✦ Dracula ✦ Blackout Sketch Comedy: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Crappiness ✦ Fuddy Meers ✦ Annie ✦ Striking 12

2007
Cabaret Concerts: Carol Reinert ✦ Cabaret Concerts: Rick Dines ✦ Urinetown: The Musical ✦ Frozen ✦ Sexual Perversity in Chicago ✦ Disney’s High School Musical ✦ Beyond Therapy ✦ The Gingerbread Lady ✦ Breaking Legs ✦ Jekyll & Hyde ✦ Cabaret Concerts: Nick, Ruell and Ned the Band ✦ Over The River And Through The Woods ✦ My Three Angels

2006
Ruthless! The Musical ✦ Dawg Pound Blues ✦ The Dinner Party ✦ The Underpants ✦ Nine: The Musical ✦ The Weir ✦ Swingtime Canteen ✦ The Queen of Bingo ✦ Boy Gets Girl ✦ Fat Pig ✦ Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street ✦ Laughter on the 23rd Floor ✦ Crowns

2005
Broadway Rocks 3 ✦ God’s Man in Texas ✦ Company ✦ Voices in the Dark ✦ Choreocopia–The 4th Edition ✦ The Twa Sisters ✦ Matt & Ben ✦ Edward Albee’s The Goat or, Who is Sylvia?✦ ...And Then There Was Nun ✦ I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change ✦ The Good Doctor ✦ Seascape with Sharks and Dancer ✦ Dancing at Lughnasa ✦ An Empty Plate in the Café Du Grand Boeuf ✦ Dracula ✦ Run For Your Wife ✦ Man of La Mancha ✦ Broadway Rocks 4

2004
Broadway Rocks 2 ✦ Wit ✦ The Vagina Monologues ✦ Cabaret ✦ The Owl and the Pussycat ✦ Something’s Afoot ✦ Dawg Pound Blues ✦ Showtune ✦ The Guys ✦ Bent ✦ Master Class ✦ Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol

2003
Broadway Rocks! ✦ The Laramie Project ✦ Crimes of the Heart ✦ Salt & Pepper ✦ Choreocopia ✦ Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill ✦ Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ✦ Stephen Sondheim’s Putting It Together ✦ Fully Committed ✦ Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women ✦ Bat Boy: The Musical ✦ Proof

2002
Hedwig and the Angry Inch ✦ As Bees in Honey Drown ✦ Art ✦ Choreocopia ✦ Somebody Catch My Homework ✦ Kiss Of The Spider Woman–The Musical ✦ Fame–The Musical ✦ Anton in Show Business ✦ The All Night Strut! ✦ Agnes of God ✦ Little Women: Meg, Jo, Beth & Amy ✦ The Lion in Winter ✦ The Santaland Diaries

2001
Vanities ✦ The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me ✦ The Fox ✦ Oleanna ✦ The CASA Project ✦ Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show ✦ The Nutley Papers–The Musical ✦ Grease ✦ The Mystery Of Irma Vep ✦ Waiting For Godot ✦ Scott Cox On The Rocks ✦ Death Defying Acts ✦ P.S. Your Cat Is Dead!

2000
Pitch ✦ Picasso At The Lapin Agile ✦ Soft Click of a Switch ✦ Shame The Devil–An Evening With Fanny Kemble ✦ Mass Appeal ✦ Pippin ✦ The House of Yes ✦ Song of Ourselves ✦ Five Women Wearing the Same Dress ✦ A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum ✦ Murder at the Howard Johnson’s ✦ Shakespeare’s R & J ✦ In No Sense ✦ Devon’s Hurt ✦ The Maelstrom ✦ Dear John: A New Revelation ✦ Greetings!

1999
The Too-Too Revue ✦ The Foreigner ✦ Love! Valour! Compassion! ✦ Starting Here, Starting Now ✦ I Will Sing Life ✦ Painting Churches ✦ The Living ✦ Other People’s Money ✦ Songs In The Key Of “C” ✦ The Female Odd Couple ✦ Into The Woods ✦ Private Eyes ✦ The Impresario ✦ How I Learned To Drive ✦ The Pinter Project ✦ Little Shop Of Horrors ✦ Angels In America–Part One: Millennium Approaches

1998
The World Goes ‘Round ✦ American Buffalo ✦ A Valentine Suite ✦ What the Butler Saw ✦ Interrupting Ert ✦ Little Old Ladies In Tennis Shoes ✦ The Magical Adventures of Jack McPoorly–Or–Climb Every Beanstalk ✦ Hair ✦ Burn This ✦ Das Barbecü ✦ Connie Pachl is Coming Through ✦ Act of the Imagination ✦ The Penelope Blues ✦ Later Life ✦ The Adventures of Nate the Great ✦ Chess ✦ Steel Magnolias ✦ She Loves Me

1997
Voices of a Red Ribbon ✦ Much Ado About Nothing ✦ Emma ✦ Jeffrey ✦ M 4 M ✦ Lonely Planet ✦ Marry Me A Little ✦ The Diaries Of Adam And Eve ✦ Fiesta ✦ The Cemetery Club ✦ Broadway Montage ✦ Tales Of A Fourth Grade Nothing ✦ The Threepenny Opera ✦ Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead ✦ The Fantasticks ✦ Some Things You Need To Know Before the World Ends–A Final Evening With the Illuminati

1996
Mark Spark’s Crazy as Ever ✦ An Evening With Mark Twain ✦ Nights Alone with Dewey D ✦ Falsettos ✦ Gash/Voigt Dance Theatre of St. Louis ✦ Boo! ✦ A Grand Night For Singing ✦ The Four Corners Café ✦ Home For The Holidays

1995
Cabaret Noël