Historical note
The main theater companies that performed regularly in Newport, Rhode Island, throughout the 1980s were The Rhode Island Shakespeare Theatre (TRIST), founded in 1971, and The Incredibly Far Off-Broadway Ensemble Theatre (TIFOBET), founded in 1977. For a time, these two non-profit theater companies shared performance space at the Swanhurst Theatre in Newport. Other Newport community theaters operating during this time were the Blauhaus Theater and the Second Story Theatre (which later relocated to Warren, Rhode Island).