Compass Players (St. Louis)

Theodore J. Flicker, who had been involved with the original Compass Players in Chicago and Hyde Park, directed a St. Louis branch of the company at the Crystal Palace cabaret venue in 1957. The ensemble included Mike Nichols, Elaine May, and Del Close, and the St. Louis run formed part of the broader Compass Players experiment before the company dissolved in 1958. Paul Sills co-founded The Second City in Chicago in 1959 from the same artistic lineage; David Shepherd returned to New York. The Crystal Palace engagement is documented as a site where Nichols, May, Close, and Flicker collectively developed and refined the improvisational methods that would shape American comedy in the following decades.