:: About Us: History

A Brief History

In 1997, fellow graduates of Southwest Missouri State University – Danyel Read, Brad Price and Amy Brixey – joined co-founders Eric Little and Nick Cusumano to form an ensemble company. Our dream was to nurture a creative home where theatre professionals have an opportunity to immerse themselves in a process-oriented environment that encourages exploration and questions. We believed that, in the best of circumstances, a sharing occurs between the actors and the audience that leads to a form of awareness for all participants. Our mission was to strengthen this sharing in hopes that the relationship created in the theatre would resonate from the audience to the community. This resonation correlates directly to the “echo” for which the company is named.

Echo rented a Victorian home in the Tower Grove area of St. Louis, where we shared the living space and trained in the house’s large great room. (During the winter, it was so cold in the drafty room that we had to run laps around the house to keep warm.)  In 1998, our first show was a critically acclaimed production of Brilliant Traces by Cindy Lou Johnson.  That year, we also developed and toured an acting workshop to local high schools and thespian conferences titled The Choice Is Yours.

Over the next several years, the ensemble interpreted the works of challenging playwrights of the classic and contemporary repertoire: Chekhov, Marlowe, Genet, Fo, Durang, Claire McIntyre and George F. Walker, to name a few. The contemporary works were either Midwest or St. Louis premieres. In 2000, artistic director Eric Little wrote and directed Be Still and Know, which featured company member Amy Brixey.  The solo show, based on interviews collected from the rural Ozarks community of Alton, Missouri, toured in rural Missouri and the St. Louis area. 

In 2004, Echo produced the Tony Award-winning Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss, which fused music, song, dance and a cast of twenty-six. The setting was an insane asylum in 19th century France, yet the explosive combination of politics, philosophy, revolution and madness were potently similar to current headlines. Several critics named it the best production of 2004.

Throughout our existence, Echo has been very successful in developing partnerships with schools, community centers and rural areas. We have always sought to bring our work to parts of the city and state where theatre is not usually presented. Therefore, we were thrilled to join forces in the summer of 2003 with three other professional companies to gut, clean and refurbish the Preservation Hall building in historic Soulard. The diverse neighborhood, flourishing with nightlife, was sorely lacking a theatre or community arts center. The space attracted tremendous recognition from the press and the community. Unfortunately, the Soulard Theatre was shutdown in 2005, due to repairs and building costs.

In 2005, Echo launched our Imagination over Limitations outreach program to area children’s hospitals and our monthly play reading series. Both have been enthusiastically embraced.

In 2006, the Midwest premiere of The Sugar Syndrome by Lucy Prebble was hailed as the “Best Stage Production of the Year” in The Riverfront Times Best of 2006. Critic Dennis Brown wrote:

In 2007, our commitment to building and nurturing theatre for new audiences and artists became a top priority. Echo is creating partnerships with high schools and colleges to implement theatre training and education.  We are developing an advisory committee composed of young adults and a Living History performance series for teenagers.  In addition, we are offering students 2/$20 tickets to all of our shows, and utilizing the latest technologies and communications to reach this demographic.

Through the years, Echo has attracted talented theatre professionals from St. Louis and other parts of the country, while continuing to nurture a core ensemble, many of whom have now worked together for over ten years. Wonderful actors and designers have moved on to other pursuits, while new theatre artists continue to inform our work and vision. We are excited about the future, and know that the best is yet to come.