Columbia in Boone County, Missouri — The American Midwest (Upper Plains)

Maplewood Barn and Theatre

Historic Nifong Park

Photographed by Jason Voigt, June 25, 2024

1. Maplewood Barn and Theatre Marker

Inscription. Built in 1877 on the historic Maplewood Farm site by Boone County farmer and stock breeder Slater Ensor Lenoir, the barn was part of a working farm featuring unique feeding troughs and providing ample storage for animals and hay. The barn was listed on the National Register of Historic Places along with Maplewood House in 1976. Maplewood Barn served as a home for summer stock theater beginning in July 1973, and ending when the barn burned to the ground in April 2010. For more than 30 years, Maplewood Barn Theatre has offered audiences diverse performances ranging from poetry readings, musical theater, comedy, variety shows an even Shakespeare. Maplewood Barn was rebuilt by Columbia Parks and Recreation department, along with contributions from private donors. It was rededicated in May 2012. The Barn is also about the people who began a community theatre that gave its first performance on July 21, 1973. Nowadays they're called "Barnies."

Community leaders, including the Boone County Historical Society and the Columbia Art League encouraged the city to purchase the 58 acre property in 1970, seeing a multi-purpose community

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resource on the city's then-undeveloped south end. The art league formed a committee to explore the cultural possibilities, particularly inspired by Home Sweet Home in Bardstown, KY and the Wolf Trap performing arts park in Virginia. The November 8, 1970 dedication program includes a proposed theatre.

At the same time, Randall Bane, who had been acting and dancing professionally in New York an St. Louis, moved to Columbia to finish his Master's degree on the G.I. Bill. In March 1973 the Nifong Steering Committee received his proposal, complete with sketches, for a summer theatre at The Barn. The next month it authorized a 12-member Maplewood Barn Theatre Advisory Committee, including representatives of Columbia's Art League, Chamber of Commerce, Parks and Recreation Department and the university. Carolyn Waters became its first president. Bane's report of the theatre's birth pangs and its first performances earned him an MS degree from the University of Missouri. In the best community theatre tradition, Bane advertised for volunteers. Tryouts provided the "Barnplayer Company," including a cast of five men and three women, stage

Photographed by Jason Voigt, June 25, 2024

2. Maplewood Barn and Theatre Marker

manager, property mistress, sound technician and six apprentices. After only three weeks of intensive rehearsals and furious construction by local contractors who donated their efforts, the 12-performance season opened - despite the threat of rain. A 45-minute commedia dell arte improvisational comedy titled Trial by Haunted House was chosen because of its slapstick humor an because a St. Louis company Bane had been part of donated the traditional costumes. Passages, a series of Tschaikovsky-inspired dances by the Mid-Missouri Dance Theatre's troupe followed the Barnplayer's show. Hay bales separated actors and dancers from their appreciative audience. Because there were no lights as yet each show ended before darkness.

The successful launch of The Barn's theatre resulted in the second, even more ambitious season that ran from July 12 to August 5, 1974 and included a variety show, a poetry reading night and more commedia and dance. Opening night of the final full-fledged musical, Little Mary Sunshine, was rained out, but delighted audiences kept coming back. The Barn changed little, inside or out, over the years. Casts and crew

Photographed by Jason Voigt, June 25, 2024

3. Maplewood Barn and Theatre Marker

additional sign

walked on packed dirt indoors until the late 1980's, when a concrete floor was added. Stalls became dressing rooms and feeding bins held props and bits of scenery. The hayloft became Maplewood's prop room. From the very first show, the big, double loft doors were often opened for theatrical effect: a lover's balcony, heaven or, in performances of Oklahoma! An actual hayloft. The stage, which began as grass-rimmed-by-yay-bales, progressed to portable wooden risers, a semi-circular asphalt slab (more durable but dancers hated it) to several versions of a wooden stage on pilings of wood and concrete. Most versions were close to the generous dimensions suggested in the original proposal (48' wide and 24' deep), first semi-circular and then rectangular.

In the mid-1980's and again the mid-1990's, Maplewood's board of directors briefly considered moving to other locations: first as part of a community theatre consortium to a proposed facility in Bethel Park, then to another barn in adjoining Woodhaven. A variety of cost, legal and political problems made these impractical. The 2010 fire and the ensuing community drive to rebuild the beloved

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Barn probably guarantees a solid future for community theatre at its traditional location in Nifong Park.

Erected by Columbia Parks and Recreation.

Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Arts, Letters, Music • Entertainment. A significant historical month for this entry is March 1973.

Location. 38° 54.462′ N, 92° 17.793′ W. Marker is in Columbia, Missouri, in Boone County. It can be reached from East Nifong Boulevard west of Ponderosa Street. Marker is located at Frank L. Nifong Memorial Park. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 2900 E Nifong Blvd, Columbia MO 65201, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in Little Dixie

and in the Missouri River Corridor.

It is also in the American Midwest,

in the Lewis & Clark Corridor,

and in the Corn Belt.

Globally, it is in North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture,

the Louisiana Purchase,

and the Antebellum South.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 3 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Rock Bridge Mills Millstone (about 700 feet away, measured in a direct line); The Gordon-Collins Log Cabin (about 700 feet away); The Easley Country Store (about 700 feet away); The Ryland Farm House (about 700 feet away); Columbia (approx. 2.1 miles away); War Memorial (approx. 2.1 miles away); Jewell Cemetery State Historic Site (approx. 2.3 miles away); The F.L. Duley - M.E. Miller Erosion Plots (approx. 2.6 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Columbia.

Another marker is no longer nearby. Jewell Cemetery (was approx. 2.3 miles away but has been replaced with another marker now near it).

Credits. This page was last revised on July 2, 2024. It was originally submitted on July 2, 2024, by Jason Voigt of Glen Carbon, Illinois. This page has been viewed 233 times since then and 34 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on July 2, 2024, by Jason Voigt of Glen Carbon, Illinois.