- .w ~ - _______ -
Christopher Plummer and Georgann Johnson in "Sabrina Fair," 1954
Drama Season To Begin Twenty-Fifth Year
TjUESDAY evening the Ann Ar-
bor Drama Season will start
its twenty-fifth season.
The Season, beginning in 1930,
coincided with the opening of
Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre, and
has maintained its annual sched-
ule since then except for a six-year
break which began during the
second world war.
The Drama Season began as a
project of Mrs. W. D. Henderson,
assisted by Mrs. Lucille W. Up-
ham, both Ann Arbor residents
who were instrumental in raising
thegfunds to build thehWomen's
' League Building which houses the
theatre.
w YThe Season was held under the
directorship of Robert Henderson
for eight years. The classical ac-
tress Margaret Anglin was the
first celebrity to act on the Men-
v3 delssohn stage when she opened
the first Drama Season in Sopho-
i cles' "Antigone." Other plays pre-
sented that first season were "The
Sea Gull," "Serena Blandish" and
"The Royal Family."
HE SECOND year found
Blanche Yurka starring in "Elec-
tra" and Estelle Winwood in "The
Way of the World."
After the season was, well estab-
lished, Henderson brought such
performers as Jane Cowl, Eugenie
Leontovich, Florence Reed, Ian
Keith, Nazimova, and Ilka Chase.
Some of the plays presented
during those years were "The Ani-
mal Kingdom," "Springtime for
henry," "Design for Living," "To-
Ethel Waters in "The Member varich," "Laburnumi Grove" and
of-th Weding,"1956a special Noel Coward-Leonard
Silman review called "Up to the
-.Stars."
WHEN MRS. Henderson died,
her son, Robert, left Ann Ar-
bor, and Helen Arthur served as
- executive director for two years.
Then, in 1940, Prof. Valentine
Windt assumed the position of
director. Shortly after he assumed
directorship, however, World War
II caused the cancellation of the
Season for six years.
In 1949, an Ann Arbor resident,
Roger L. Stevens, became inter-
ested in reviving the season, and
Windt's production of "Twelfth
Night" was brought forth.
Since that time Helen Hayes,
Katharine Cornell, Eva LeGal-
lienne, Cedric Hardwicke, Lillian
Gish, Ruth Hussey, Miriam Hop-
Helen Hayes as Lady Macbeth, 1955kins, Basil Rathbone, Betty Field
and Burgess Meredith have ap-
peared in Ann Arbor.
THE UNIVERSITY assumed
xi s sponsorship of the Drama Sea-
son in 1952, an arrangement that
continued until last spring.
Upon Windt's death in 1956, the
directorship of the Drama Season
was turned over to Broadway di-
rector John O'Shaughnessy. Since
then the bill has included Judith
Anderson in "Black Chiffon,"
Ethel Waters in "The Member of
the Wedding," Gladys Cooper in
"The Chalk Garden, Billie Burke
in "The Solid Gold Cadillac,"
Luther Adler in "A View from the
Bridge," Carol Bruce in "Lady in
the Dark" and Charlton Heston in
"Macbeth."
Ilka Chase in 1935
"Tiger at the Gate" with Ernest Graves
and Vicki Cummings, 1956
Carol Bruce in "Lady in the Dark," 1957
Arthur Miller's "The Crucible," 1954
Six
THE MICHIGAN DAILY MAGAZINE SUNDAY, MAY 8, 1960