Holt, Stella, 1899-1967

Stella Holt was born Beatrice Holtzer in 1899 in Poland. Holt lost her sight at age 17 and changed her name upon immigrating to the United States where she attended Cornell University. After graduation she worked as a social worker but soon changed careers to found and serve as managing director of the Greenwich Mews Theatre in 1952. Holt produced 38 plays over 15 years at the 200-seat theater, located in the Village Presbyterian Church. Holt selected which plays to produce with assistance from her partner Frances Drucker (a former high school teacher with whom she had a 20-year relationship). Under Holt's leadership, the Greenwich Mews Theater produced plays by Padraic Colum, René Marqués, Sean O'Casey, and Jules Romains. Playwright Tennessee Williams praised Holt's production of his Orpheus Descending, which he preferred over both the Broadway production and the film adaptation.

Holt encouraged and supported the careers of aspiring directors like Adrian Hall. Holt was actively involved in casting and actresses Zina Bethune and Diana Sands made their stage debuts at Greenwich Mews. Holt produced the work of many leading Black writers, including Langston Hughes, Loften Mitchell, Alice Childress, Bill Gunn, and William Branch. The Greenwich Mews Theater, under her leadership, was one of only a few producing shows with integrated or all-Black casts. In 1955 Greenwich Mews presented Alice Childress's first full-length play, Trouble In Mind, about the experiences of Black artists in the white-dominated theater industry. The play was directed by Childress herself, starring Clarice Taylor; it ran for 91 performances. During the production process, there was a dispute between Childress and the producers (a group that included Holt) over the ending of the play. The producers pushed for a more optimistic conclusion, asking for a "scene of unity" between Black and white characters – the ending as originally written provided no such redemption. Childress argued that this outcome was "wishful thinking," and would be unrealistic, but was forced to make the change. When the play was published, the text was restored to its original form.

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