PROBABLY FIRST CINO PLAY FLYER-1960

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MAGIE DOMINIC shares what may in all likelihood be the first flyer for the first reading of plays at the Cino, Sunday, February 7th, 1960. Actor/director Bill Mitchell says “A Christmas Story” was the first “sit-down reading” at the Cino and that it happened in Feb. 1959, but that date doesn’t calendarically come on a Sunday. A Village Voice article of April 23, 1964 says, apparently citing Joe Cino, “In February 1960, he initiated Sunday night readings by actors of prose, poetry, and scenes from plays. The regular schedule of plays began in June, 1960.” However, actor Ron Faber says a photo of him dated Dec. 1958 (the month the Cino opened) is from a Cino production, and Bob Dahdah agrees, but adds that his own first production (fully staged and reviewed by the Village Voice) at the Cino was “No Exit,” also in February, 1960. Glenn Dubose staged “Aria Da Capo” in April, 1960, and Peter Ratray says the May 4, 1960 “Tea and Sympathy” was  “fully directed and staged.”  In addition, Joe Cino told me quite another story of when and how he began doing plays. So we are left with more, rather than less, ambiguity about the early days of the Cino, what I choose to call “The Silent Era.”