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Pasadena Playhouse
Description
The Pasadena Playhouse produced over 1,600 plays between 1917 and 1969, training and featuring hundreds of leading actors of the twentieth century. At one time the largest community theater west of New York, the Playhouse pioneered a "theatre-in-the-round" staging technique and became a leader in the Little Theatre movement that began prior to World War I. During the organization's "golden years" from the 1920s through the 1940s, it staged hundreds of new plays, including American and world premieres by Eugene O'Neill, William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams, and Noel Coward, and became known internationally as the only American theater to have performed all of Shakespeare's plays. Notes on original containers: This reel of tape contains some of the interviews done by Gail Leo Shoup, in the mid-1960s, as research for his doctoral thesis at UCLA (June, 1968). All of the people interviewed for the project were active in the early days of The Pasadena Community Playhouse - the subject of Shoup's dissertation. Tape 1 - Side 1 - 1 2/3 hours interview with Miss Lenore Shanewise (Gilmore Brown's "right hand" and as Associate Director, on Saturday 11/20/65 at her trailer in Laguna. Side 2 - 1 2/3 hours interview with Mr. Maurice Wells, who also assisted Mr. Brown, Monday 11/29/1965 at his home in Pasadena. Tape 2 - Side 1 - interview with Bea and Jay Howard, who are typical of the "social set" that became active participants, at their home on Thursday 2/2/67. Runs 65 minutes, with about 8 minutes at the end of their interview on side 2. Side 2 - interview with Ralph Freud, a professional actor who became an Associate Director, at my PP office on Friday 2/24/67. Tape 3 - interview with Ruth and Charlie Lane, actors with PCP from late 1920s until early 1950s, 3/15/67. 90 minutes. Interview with Jim Callahan, a veteran stagehand, at his home on Thursday 3/16/67. Interview with Coy Bronson. Interview with Maudie Prickett, widow of PCP business manager, and a student and actress, at her home on 3/21/67. Interview with Ralph and Mayfair Freud, local girl active with PCP for many years, at their home on 4/14/67. Tape 4 - Side 1- interview with Albert McCleery at PCP on 3/28/67, 65 minutes. Interview with Ollie Prickett, had a long association with the PCP, at his home on 3/29/67. Side 2 - interview with Eugenia Ong at the PCP on 4/4/67, 50 minutes. Interview with Ralph Freud and Ken Patterson on Monday 4/10/67. Interview with Doro Adams and Byron Foulger on 4/7/67, 50 minutes. Interview with Lenore Shanewise at her home in Pasadena on March 9, 1965, 38 minutes.
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