Genesius Guild records

The Genesius Guild is an outdoor community theatre specializing in classical plays. In 1956, Don Wooten founded the Genesius Guild to participate in the Rock Island Playground Recreation-Park Board’s annual Marshall Dramatic Contest. In the summer of 1957, the Park Board invited the Genesius Guild to perform outdoors in Rock Island’s Lincoln Park. The success of these performances prompted the Park Board to continue funding the Genesius Guild, which allowed the group to present its shows free of charge. In its early years, the Genesius Guild toured parks in the Quad Cities area, mounting productions on a stage in a flatbed truck. The truck was retired in 1963, and since then the group has performed at the former Denkmann Memorial Pool in Lincoln Park on a stage that is built over the shallow pool each summer.

Genesius Guild produces an average of five shows over a season that runs from early June to mid-August. Each season regularly features one ancient Greek tragedy performed in mask, one ancient Greek comedy as adapted by Don Wooten for modern audiences, and two works of William Shakespeare. They occasionally perform the religious dramas of Henri Gheon or works of George Bernard Shaw. The Guild has sometimes partnered with other local groups such as Opera@Augustana and Ballet Quad Cities to add English language operas and dance to the repertoire. Actors are all volunteers and are usually high-school age or above. Aside from regular summer seasons, the Genesius Guild has staged several winter shows and fundraisers around the Quad City area. The group briefly staged experimental theatre in Augustana College’s Larson Hall, operated a children’s theatre from 1963 to 1979, performed several reader’s theatres, and hosted seminars on Shakespeare’s plays.