Graham, Kenneth L.

Director, actor, professor of theatre for young audiences at the University of Minnesota.

From the description of Kenneth L. Graham collection, 1935-1996. (Scottsdale Public Library). WorldCat record id: 51249564

Dr. Kenneth L. Graham, director, actor, university professor and administrator, and theatre for youth specialist, was born in Coffeyville, Kansas on April 15, 1915. He began studying theatre at a junior college in Kansas and went on to receive a B.A. in Theatre from the State University of Iowa in 1937. He did graduate work at the University of Southern California and the University of Minnesota before earning an M.A. in Theatre from Northwestern University in 1939. While at Northwestern he studied under the tutelage of children's theatre professor Winifred Ward. Graham continued his studies at the University of Utah and received his Ph.D. in Children's Theatre in 1947. His dissertation, An Introductory Study of Evaluation of Plays for Children's Theatre in the United States, is noted as the first doctoral study written on the field of children's theatre.

Graham taught speech and dramatics at North Kansas City High School in Missouri from 1937-1948 during breaks in his education and his stint in the Army. In the summers of 1941-1942 and 1946-1948 Graham was the director of the School of the Theatre at Cain Park Theatre in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

From 1942-1946 Graham served in the United States Naval Reserve as Captain of a submarine chaser in the Caribbean escorting convoys and as an instructor of anti-submarine warfare in Miami. Graham married Barbara Fowler in 1945 and they had two children, Sherry and Greg. Barbara (Fowler) Graham passed away in 1969.

Graham's University of Minnesota academic career began as a teaching assistant in 1939 and ended when he retired in 1980 and was named Professor Emeritus. While there, Graham held the position of teaching assistant (1939-1942), assistant professor (1948-1952), associate professor (1952-1957), and professor (1957-1980). He served as Chairman of the Department of Speech-Communications and Theatre Arts from 1964-1971 and as Chairman of the Department of Theatre Arts and Director of the University Theatre from 1971-1977. His courses taught included Stage Directing; Styles in Acting; Advanced Acting; Beginning Acting; Creative Drama with Children; Children's Theatre; History of the Theatre; Play Production for Secondary Education; Oral Interpretation of Literature; Film and Drama; Scene Design; and Playwriting.

During his tenure at the University, Graham directed over fifty musicals and plays for adults and children. He supervised the University of Minnesota Young People's Theatre and the Peppermint Tent from 1940 until 1980. He created a liaison between the children's theatre program and the Minneapolis public schools so local school children could experience theatre. His plays directed for young audiences included Charlotte Chorpenning's Emperor's New Clothes, Huckleberry Finn, Seven Little Rebels, and Caddie Woodlawn . He served as Director of the United States Office of Education's summer institutes for training teachers in creative drama in 1968 and 1969.

The following adult productions directed by him were invited to perform at the American College Theatre Festival (ACTF) and received awards of excellence: The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky in 1979 and The Man Who Came to Dinner in 1980. His production of Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris was selected by the U.S.O. to tour the Pacific bases in Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Okinawa, and Guam in the winter of 1977.

Graham was an accomplished actor and appeared on stage, in films, and in television and radio commercials. He belonged to the Actors Equity Association, the Screen Actors Guild, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The majority of his professional stage and film performances happened after his retirement from the University of Minnesota in 1980. His photograph also appeared in print advertisements.

Graham was active in national and regional theatre organizations. He served in the following positions for the American Theatre Association (ATA), formerly known as the American Educational Theatre Association (AETA): President in 1964, Vice-President in 1963, Executive Secretary-Treasurer from 1956-1958, Board of Directors from 1955-1967, Director of the Children's Theatre Conference (CTC) from 1952-1953, and Director of the University Resident Theatre Association (URTA) from 1976-1977. He was a member of the organizing committee of AETA/ANTA and helped to formulate plans for what became ACTF. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis from 1976-1977; on the Board of Trustees at the American Playwrights Theatre from 1963-1977; and as a Research Consultant for the United States Office of Education from 1966-1968. In 1960 he received a director observership from the Ford Foundation to work on professional productions of Becket and All the Way Home in New York City.

His chapter titled Values to Children from Good Theatre in the book Children's Theatre and Creative Dramatics is considered by many to be a seminal publication in the field. He also served as project director and edited the report titled Relationships Between Educational Theatre and Professional Theatre: Actor Training in the United States: A Report on the University of Minnesota Conference, February 3-6 and May 26-31, 1966. This report appeared in a special issue of the Educational Theatre Journal in November 1966.

When Graham traveled, he often included theatre-related activities in his itinerary. He was a guest of the West German Republic Cultural Foreign Office during the summer of 1967. During his sabbatical in 1974-1975, he visited 35 cities in Eastern and Western Europe to investigate acting and theatre teaching techniques. Following his retirement, Graham hosted tours to London for a Minnesotan travel agency, in 1984 leading tours to both London and China.

Kenneth Graham passed away on February 8, 1996 at his home in Minneapolis. The Kenneth L. Graham Graduate Endowment was set up in his honor at the University of Minnesota Department of Theatre Arts.

His awards include: induction into the American Theatre College of Fellows in 1968; the 1995 AATE (American Alliance for Theatre & Education) Campton Bell Lifetime Achievement Award; the 1981 CTC (Children's Theatre Conference) Creative Drama for Human Awareness Award; and the 1967 CTC F. Loren Winship Secondary School Theatre Award.

From the guide to the Kenneth L. Graham Collection, 1935-1996, 1936-1942, 1946-1992, (Arizona State University Libraries Child Drama Collection)