Koch, Frederick H. (Frederick Henry), 1877-1944

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Frederick H. Koch was the director of the Department of Dramatic Art at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the author and editor of several books on drama.

From the description of Frederick H. Koch letter to Dear Art, and publications, 1940-1943. (Pennsylvania State University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 64582065

Professor of dramatic literature at the University of North Dakota and University of North Carolina; founder and director of the Carolina Playmakers.

From the description of Frederick H. Koch papers, 1893-1979 [manuscript]. WorldCat record id: 25610225

Theatrical director and educator.

From the description of Address of Frederick H. Koch, 1935. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 71014906

[This note is from the sketch of Koch written by Samuel Selden for the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography (vol. 3, p. 381). A family chart produced by the compilers of this inventory follows.]

Frederick Henry Koch, 12 September 1877-16 August 1944, was born in Covington, Kentucky, in a family of nine boys and one girl. His father, August William Koch, was of German ancestry; his mother, Rebecca Cornelia Julian Koch, came from French stock. August, an accountant and cashier in the Etna Life Insurance Company, was a freehand artist and inventor. His imaginative bent showed up in his children: three of his sons became architects, the daughter a singer. From his father, Frederick obtained creative talents, from his mother a playful disposition.

Koch grew up in Illinois. He attended Peoria High School and Caterals Methodist College, then Ohio Wesleyan, from which he was graduated with the A.B. degree in 1900. Wishing passionately to become an actor, he spent some time at the Emerson School of Oratory in Boston, but when his family frowned on his histrionic ambition, Koch enrolled at Harvard to study English literature. Unable to stifle completely his thespian urge, however, he traveled around the countryside giving readings of Shakespeare. He was awarded the M.A. degree in 1909.

At Harvard Koch fell under the dramatic influence of George Pierce Baker who was, at the time, stirring a group of young men and women to write plays on native American subjects. After graduation, Koch took an extended trip to Greece, North Africa, Syria, Egypt, and Palestine. At Athens he met an Irish-American girl, Loretta Jean Hanigan, whom he married in 1910. They had four sons: Frederick, George, Robert, and William. From 1905 to 1918 Koch taught English at the University of North Dakota where, besides conducting courses in literature, he founded the Dakota Playmakers. The Playmakers produced one-act plays on the life of the state, written by students. The plays were trouped around North Dakota and presented to schools and communities, some of which had never before seen a dramatic performance.

Informed of the singularly productive work being done by Professor Koch in the Midwest, President Edward Kidder Graham of The University of North Carolina wished to develop similar creative activity at his institution. In 1918 he wrote to Koch and persuaded him to come to the Southeast. In Chapel Hill, Koch taught dramatic literature and playwriting for twenty-six years. Young men and women from every section of the state came to work with him, and they were soon joined by students from other states, then from abroad; Canada, England, Germany, Egypt, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Mexico, Chile, and elsewhere. Among the dramatists, novelists, and short-story writers (authors, who were inspired and guided in one way or another by the lively theater man from the Midwest) were Thomas Wolfe, Paul Green, Betty Smith, Jonathan Daniels, Noel Houston, Joseph Mitchell, Frances Gray Patton, Bernice Kelly Harris, Le Gette Blythe, Howard Richardson, and Josefina Niggli.

To provide a means for his authors to see their work in performances, Koch organized a producing group, the Carolina Playmakers, modeled on the Playmakers of North Dakota. Many of the actors, directors, dancers, and designers who received instruction at The University of North Carolina later entered the professional world of the stage, motion pictures, and television. The university group--again following the example of the Dakota students--trouped their plays all over North Carolina, and extended their tours to such far-off places as New York, Boston, Dallas, and St. Louis.

With the help of the University Extension Department and its associates, Koch established a Bureau of Community Drama, with a field secretary, which developed dramatic centers in other parts of the state. The productions of high school, college, and community groups were brought yearly to the university in Chapel Hill where they were staged in a spring Festival. Thirty years after Koch's death, the yearly Festival was still being held.

Selected student-written plays were published by Koch in five volumes: Carolina Folk Plays (in four series) and American Folk Plays. He sponsored single authors' works in Alabama Folk Plays, by Kate Porter Lewis; Folk Plays of Eastern Carolina, by Bernice Kelly Harris; and Mexican Folk Plays, by Josefina Niggli. Some of Miss Niggli's short stories were combined and produced as a motion picture, Sombrero. Outdoor historical plays, inspired by Koch and written by Paul Green and Kermit Hunter, were produced and published.

Koch used the term 'folk play' in the sense of the German 'volk' (common people), thus describing his employment of the word: The term 'folk,' as we use it, has nothing to do with the folk play of medieval times. But rather is it concerned with folk subject matter: with the legends, superstitions, customs, environmental differences, and the vernacular of the common people. For the most part they are realistic and human; sometimes they are imaginative and poetic. The early plays of Eugene O'Neill and Paul Green, Koch regarded as folk plays; the dramas of such writers as Bernard Shaw and John Von Druten were not.

A man of remarkable energy and enthusiasm, Koch remained active until the time of his death. He was buried in the old Chapel Hill Cemetery.

From the guide to the Frederick H. Koch Papers, ., 1893-1979, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
referencedIn George Pierce Baker papers, 1878-1958 Yale University. Department of Manuscripts and Archives
creatorOf Koch, Frederick H. (Frederick Henry), 1877-1944. Frederick H. Koch papers, 1893-1979 [manuscript]. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
referencedIn University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Image Collection, 1799-1999 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives.
referencedIn University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Dramatic Art Photographs and Related Materials, 1911-1970s University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives.
referencedIn Dorothy Nevile Lees papers relating to Edward Gordon Craig and, The Mask, 1905-1963. Harvard Theater Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University
creatorOf Bishop, Farnham. Irene Childrey Hoch Shannon Collection, 1928-1936. California state library
referencedIn Green, Paul, 1894-1981. Paul Green papers, 1880-1985. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
referencedIn Houghton Library printed book provenance file, E-K. Houghton Library
referencedIn Collier Cobb Photographic Collection, 1890s-1920s University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives.
referencedIn Paul Green Papers, 1880-1992 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection
referencedIn Richard Gaither Walser Papers, 1918-1988 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection
referencedIn Richard Gaither Walser Papers, 1918-1988 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection
referencedIn George Freedley papers, 1861-1971, 1935-1966 The New York Public Library. Billy Rose Theatre Division.
referencedIn Wisdom, William B. William B. Wisdom collection of Thomas Wolfe. 1909-1959. Houghton Library
referencedIn Houghton Library printed book provenance file, E-K. Houghton Library
referencedIn Thomas Wolfe scrapbook [microform] : [manuscript and published items by and about Thomas Wolfe / collected by Frederick Henry Koch] University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
referencedIn Stoker, Carroll. [Scrapbooks / compiled by Carroll Stoker]. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
referencedIn Maxwell Evarts Perkins correspondence and papers on Thomas Wolfe, 1933-1948. Houghton Library
Maxwell Evarts Perkins correspondence and papers on Thomas Wolfe, 1933-1948. Houghton Library
referencedIn General Faculty and Faculty Council of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Records, 1799-2011 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. University Archives and Records Service
referencedIn Baker, George Pierce, 1866-1935. George Pierce Baker papers, 1878-1958 (inclusive). Yale University Library
creatorOf Frederick H. Koch Papers, 1893-1979 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection
creatorOf Koch, Frederick H. (Frederick Henry), 1877-1944. Address of Frederick H. Koch, 1935. Library of Congress
referencedIn Houghton Library printed book provenance file, E-K. Houghton Library
creatorOf Hopwood Awards Collection, 1930- University of Michigan
creatorOf Koch, Frederick H. (Frederick Henry), 1877-1944. Frederick H. Koch letter to Dear Art, and publications, 1940-1943. Pennsylvania State University Libraries
referencedIn Adams, Agatha Boyd. Thomas Wolfe letters given to library of University of North Carolina / by Agatha B. Adams. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
creatorOf Henderson, Archibald, 1877-1963. Foreword [to American folk plays by Frederick H. Koch]. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
referencedIn Holt, Roland, 1867-1931. Roland Holt papers, 1883-1956 [manuscript]. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
associatedWith Adams, Agatha Boyd. person
associatedWith American Pageant Association. corporateBody
associatedWith Baker, George Pierce, 1866-1935. person
associatedWith Carolina Playmakers. corporateBody
associatedWith Cloetingh, Arthur C. (Arthur Charles), 1890-1954, person
associatedWith Cobb, Collier, b. 1862. person
associatedWith Freedley, George, 1904-1967 person
associatedWith Green, Paul, 1894-1981. person
associatedWith Henderson, Archibald, 1877-1963. person
associatedWith Holt, Roland, 1867-1931. person
associatedWith Houghton Library. corporateBody
associatedWith Koch, August Wilhelm. person
associatedWith Koch, Jean Hanigan. person
associatedWith Lees, Dorothy Nevile. person
associatedWith McCall, Adeline, 1900- person
associatedWith Ohio Wesleyan University corporateBody
associatedWith Perkins, Maxwell E. (Maxwell Evarts), 1884-1947 person
associatedWith Stoker, Carroll. person
associatedWith University of North Carolina (1793-1962) corporateBody
associatedWith University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dept. of Dramatic Art. corporateBody
associatedWith University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. General Faculty. corporateBody
associatedWith Walser, Richard Gaither, 1908-1988. person
correspondedWith Wisdom, William B., 1900-1977 person
associatedWith Wolfe, Thomas, 1900-1938. person
associatedWith Wootten, Bayard Morgan, 1875-1959. person
Place Name Admin Code Country
Peoria IL US
Chapel Hill NC US
Covington KY US
Miami Beach FL US
Subject
Theater
Acting teachers
Authors, American
American drama
College and school drama, American
College teachers
College theater
Dramatists, American
Families
Fathers and sons
Folk drama, American
Pageants
Occupation
Educators
Theatrical producers and directors
Activity

Person

Birth 1877-09-12

Death 1944-08-16

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