TIMELINE: The history of the Maplewood Barn Community Theatre

• 1877: Dr. Frank Nifong’s wife Lavinia Lenoir’s family built the Maplewood Home.
• 1969: Nifong Park established; barn used as day camp
• 1973: Debut season
  
• 1986: Maplewood Barn Theatre Association considers move because of vandals and lack of seating and parking.
• 1995: City discusses relocating theater from barn to Woodhaven Learning Center
• 2008: Barn crew performs “The Front Page” as part of the centennial celebration of the MU School of Journalism
• 2009: Mark Durrant goes missing at barn, body later found in submerged car.
• 2010: New stage called Mark Durrant Memorial Stage

Other history:

• “Trial By Haunted House” was the first show to hit the stage in the early 1970s.
• Previous shows included, "Showboat," "Little Mary Sunshine," “Plan 9,” “Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “Little Shop of Horrors.”
• The stage was renovated this year.
• This season was supposed to feature performances of “Arsenic and Old Lace,” “Revenge of the Space Pandas,” “Othello” and “Camelot.”
• Unlike many other community theaters Maplewood Barn Community Theatre has used live animals in its productions including a horse in a 1992 production of “Oklahoma!” A monkey, scheduled to appear in the 1991 production of “Inherit the Wind,” died of an aspirin overdose shortly before opening night. 
  

Information from The Columbia Daily Tribune, The Columbia Missourian, Maplewood Barn Web site, Missouri School of Journalism.