University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Dramatic Art Photographs and Related Materials, 1911-1970s

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University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Dramatic Art Photographs and Related Materials, 1911-1970s

1911-1970s

https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/P0035/

The Department of Dramatic Art at the University of North Carolina was established in 1936; prior to that, instruction in the history of theater and comparative drama was given in the Department of English. In addition to academic instruction, the new department produced plays and supported dramatic efforts. The Carolina Playmakers, founded in 1918 by drama professor Frederick Henry Koch (1877-1944), became its production unit. Koch and the Playmakers specialized in folk drama and were considered seminal in the Little Theatre movement of the early 20th century. The group performed plays (many of which were written by students) on campus, and also toured North Carolina and other states. The Carolina Dramatic Association, begun in 1922, was a cooperative program of the Department of Dramatic Art and the University Extension Division's Bureau of Community Drama. A new semi-professional theatrical group, the PlayMakers Repertory Company, was established in 1976. Many persons associated with the study of dramatic art at the University of North Carolina later achieved professional prominence, including Thomas Wolfe, Paul Green, Betty Smith, Shepperd Strudwick, Jack Palance, Louise Fletcher, Anne Jeffries, and Andy Griffith. The collection spans the time period from 1911 through the 1970s and includes photographs and related material documenting theatrical productions, personnel, tours, programs, events, and other activities of the Department of Dramatic Art. Images primarily document the Carolina Playmakers (1918-1975), and often depict Caucasian actors portraying African American, Native American, and Asian characters. Many of these early play images were taken and produced by the photographer Bayard Wootten or by Wootten-Moulton Studios. Productions and activities of the PlayMakers Reperatory Company, the North Dakota Playmakers (founded by Frederick Henry Koch in 1905 before he came to the University of North Carolina), and the Works Progress Administration's Federal Theatre Project are also depicted. The collection consists primarily of photographic material (prints, negatives, and 35mm slides), but also contains programs from productions, notes on tour dates, reviews, and other materials.

Approximately 5,550 items (in 27 boxes, 13.5 linear feet of shelf space)

eng, Latn

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6630110

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives.

Related Entities

There are 31 Entities related to this resource.

Finch, Robert, 1909-1959

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6349tcd (person)

Carolina Playmakers

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dj9kjp (corporateBody)

PlayMakers Repertory Company

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w4309f (corporateBody)

Bailey, Loretto Carroll, 1908-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hx2mnh (person)

Greet, Ben, Sir, 1857-1936

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64f2sxx (person)

Philip Ben Greet (1857-1936) was an English actor and theater manager. From the description of Ben Greet papers, 1845-1936. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122570903 From the guide to the Ben Greet papers, 1845-1936, (The New York Public Library. Manuscripts and Archives Division.) ...

Horton, W. C.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xs72gw (person)

Denny, George Vernon, 1899-1959

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jm2bv3 (person)

Educator, radio personality, and organization executive. From the description of George Vernon Denny papers, 1930-1959. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70980268 Denny was associated with the Town Hall Theater in New York City and was the originator of a popular weekly radio program called "America's Town Meetings of the Air," which ran from 1935 until 1956. From the description of Correspondence from Alma Mahler, 1942. (University of Pennsylvania Library). WorldCa...

Harrison, Richard B.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67w7m4v (person)

Richard Harrison (1864-1935) was an actor appearing most notably in "Green Pastures." He was also a skilled reader and interpreter of Shakespere. From the description of Richard B. Harrison collection, 1930-1935. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122486145 From the guide to the Richard B. Harrison collection, 1930-1935, (The New York Public Library. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division.) ...

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6d54b72 (corporateBody)

Arthur, Billy, 1911-2006

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xp8c2k (person)

William Joseph Eudy "Billy" Arthur, North Carolina editor, publisher, columnist, comedian, politician, and businessman. Arthur, a dwarf, toured on the vaudeville circuit, 1929-1930, then attended the University of North Carolina where he majored in journalism and was head cheerleader, 1931-1932. From the 1930s through the 1950s, he edited or wrote for several newspapers. He also represented Onslow County in the North Carolina House of Representatives, 1943-1945, and served as House reading clerk...

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

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69d7nwx (person)

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 Play...

Forest Theatre (Chapel Hill, N.C.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61z97p2 (corporateBody)

Smith, Betty, 1896-1972

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66m3844 (person)

American author. From the description of Letter to Walter Prichard Eaton, Sheffield, Massachusetts [manuscript], 1943 June 6. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647817380 Betty Smith (1896-1972), novelist and playwright of Brooklyn, N.Y., Ann Arbor, Mich., and Chapel Hill, N.C.; author of "A tree grows in Brooklyn" (1943); "Tomorrow will be better" (1948), "Maggie-now" (1958), and "Joy in the morning" (1963). She was married successively to George H. E. Smith, Jos...

Jurgensen, Kai

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n88hs1 (person)

University of North Carolina (1793-1962). Dept. of Dramatic Art

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rz4g7r (corporateBody)

Coffin, Gertrude Wilson.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w60z89p6 (person)

Fitz-Simons, Foster

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62c05gk (person)

Clark, Barrett H. (Barrett Harper), 1890-1953

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pn96vp (person)

Theatre historian and theorist. From the description of Notes on George Moore, 1922. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 78812829 From the description of Notes on George Moore, 1922. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 702148335 Dorothy Lockhart (1905-1985) studied voice at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia for four years. After completing her studies, she entered the professional theater in England, starting as a stage hand and working her way up to ...

MacKaye, Percy, 1875-1956

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6571kp5 (person)

Percy MacKaye was a poet and dramatist. From the description of Note, n.d. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 232007259 American poet and dramatist. From the description of Papers, 1909-1912. (Duke University Library). WorldCat record id: 36097093 Author Percy MacKaye was born into a theatrical family in New York City. He graduated from Harvard in 1897, and travelled through Europe for a time before taking a teaching job at the Craigie School in N...

Wootten, Bayard Morgan, 1875-1959

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gc2vhs (person)

Bayard Wootten (Mary Bayard Morgan Wootten) was a female pioneer in the field of photography. She was successful as a photographer and studio operator from the early 1900s through the early 1950s, when the field was dominated by men. Wootten was born in New Bern, N.C., and, although she travelled across the United States during different periods of her career, North Carolina was her home. Her first studio was attached to her home in New Bern. In 1928, she opened a studio with her half-brother Ge...

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dept. of Dramatic Art.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64n478m (corporateBody)

The Department of Dramatic Art at the University of North Carolina was established in 1936; prior to that, instruction in the history of theater and comparative drama was given in the Department of English. In addition to academic instruction, the new department produced plays and supported dramatic efforts. The Carolina Playmakers, founded in 1918 by drama professor Frederick Henry Koch (1877-1944), became its production unit. Koch and the Playmakers specialized in folk drama and were considere...

University of North Carolina (1793-1962)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64499xp (corporateBody)

The University of North Carolina was chartered by the state's General Assembly in 1789. Its first student was admitted in 1795. The governing body of the University, from its founding until 1932, was a forty-member Board of Trustees elected by the General Assembly. The Board met twice a year; at other times the business of the University was carried on by the Board's secretary-treasurer and by the presiding professor (called president beginning in 1804). Other faculty members later assumed the r...

Green, Paul, 1894-1981

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v98b53 (person)

Paul Eliot Green(1894-1981) was a Southern playwright, poet, and novelist. Born in Lillington, North Carolina, Green lived in the state all of his life and tried to capture in his writings the culture and heritage of the American South, concentrating on the experiences of tenant farmers, mill workers, Native Americans and African Americans. Green studied at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill under folk dramatist Frederick Koch of the Carolina Playmakers. After an interruption of his ...

Federal Theatre Project (U.S.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dc8rxk (corporateBody)

The Federal Theatre Project was a theatre program established during the Great Depression as part of the New Deal to fund live artistic performances and entertainment programs in the United States. It was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administration, created not as a cultural activity but as a relief measure to employ artists, writers, directors, and theater workers. It was shaped by national director Hallie Flanagan into a federation of regional...

Carolina Dramatic Association

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w642210x (corporateBody)

Heffner, Hubert C.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z905pn (person)

Hubert C. Heffner was a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Speech, Theatre, and Dramatic Literature at Indiana University. After teaching at several institutions across the United States and England, he settled in Bloomington in 1955. In addition to his teaching responsibilities within the Dept. of Speech and Theatre, Heffner was acting director of the Indiana University Theatre from 1959-60 and 1970-71, and he was involved with the Indiana Theatre Circle. He retired in...

Koch, August Wilhelm

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6w96hf9 (person)

Griffith, Andy, 1926-2012

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rv0ntw (person)

Andy Griffith was born in Mount Airy, N.C., on 1 June 1926. He attended the University of North Carolina and was graduated in 1949. As an actor, he quickly gained fame through his portrayal of an illiterate hillbilly in the Broadway and film versions of No Time for Sergeants (1955). He also used this character in monologues such as What it Was Was Football and in appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show . Although he continued to appear in films ( A Face in the Crowd in 1956 and Onionhead in 1958), i...

Fitz-Simons, Marion Tatum.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fj3qc4 (person)

Selden, Samuel, 1899-1979

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66q2v58 (person)

Samuel Selden was chairman of the Dept. of Dramatic Art and director of the Carolina Playmakers at the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, 1944-1959. From the description of Samuel Selden papers, 1918-1977 [manuscript]. WorldCat record id: 26041021 On 2 January 1899, Samuel Selden was born in Canton, China, where his parents, Charles Card and Gertrude Thwing Selden, were medical missionaries. In 1917, Selden came to the United States. After his arrival...

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dept. of Dramatic Art.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6202dtx (corporateBody)

The Department of Dramatic Art at the University of North Carolina was established in 1936; prior to that, instruction in the history of theater and comparative drama was given in the Department of English. In addition to academic instruction, the new department produced plays and supported dramatic efforts. The Carolina Playmakers, founded in 1918 by drama professor Frederick Henry Koch (1877-1944), became its production unit. Koch and the group specialized in folk drama and were considered sem...