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UMVERSITY OF ALBERTA The Growth of Theatre 'In Edmonton: From the early 1920s to 1965 '@? Mary Ross Glenfield A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Smdies and Research in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Dnma Edmonton, Alberta Spriag, 2001 National Libtary Bibriithèque nationale I*I ofCanada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et BiMiographic Setvices seMces bibliographiques The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence ailowing the exclusive permettant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nabonale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or seil reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfonn, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. La forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or othenuise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Dedicatiou To aii the people, known and unknown, who worked to make Edmonton theatre the vibrant entity that it is toâay. Abstract The city of Edmonton has an unusually large number of theatres, dy profession& for its size. By examining the theatricd history of the city, the aim of this thesis is to show the way in which this theatre environment grew, £tom the early nineteen- twenties to nineteen-sixty-five. Iust as importantiy, it will show the influence of those people (teachers, directors, acton and leaders). who were involved with the ditferent facets and strearns of theatre in the schools, in the comrnunity, at the university, and in the civic and provincial governments. In the late nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century, the theatre in Edmonton was mainly produced by the touring companies from Britain and the United States, and fiom a few local groups corning together to put on amateur drmatics. But in the nineteen-menties, the great interes? in community theatre began. Various groups, and individuals within those groups, started to lay the foundations for a strong tradition of theatre-going and theatmparticipation in the city. By the late 1940s, there were various streams of theatre in the city, each of which is rliscussed under its own headhg: school, community, University, children's, and aibsidized (provincial and civic). There were strong people of vision providing leadership to each of the theatre streams, pas@ on their experience and knowledge to others who came after them Edmonton theatre had the good fortune to have a group of people, hgwitbin a generation of each other, who were both the inspiration and the role models for those who worked with th=, Fi1should like to express my th& to all the people who gave time and thought to my inte~ewswith them; especiaily Walter Kaasa, Phillip Silver and Daisy Wdson, who shared their archival material with me. Their personal views and obsemations were invaluable. 1 am also gratefùl to Joan Heys Hawkins for her initial help and suggestions. Next, 1 shouid like to thank my supe~soryconmittee, Dr. Alex Hawkins, Dr. Diane Bessai and Dr. Piet Deheye, and rny defense chair, Professor Kim McCaw, for their interest in the thesis. I would like to extend specid thanks to Diane Bessai for her suggestion for the thesis topic, and for her encouragement. Finally, 1 must thank my husband, Frank Glenfield, for his support and patience during the whole process of this thesis. Where my memory failed, his couid be relied upon to fil1 in the blanks. Table of Contents Dedication Abstract Acknowledgements Abbreviations Preface Chapter One. High school theatre .................................................. 1 Chapter Two. Comrnunity theatre..................................................... -8 Chapter Three. University theatre .................................................. .76 Chapter Four. Children's theatre ................................................... 1 07 Chapter Five. Audience education and theatre support ................... 12 1 Chapter Six. Subsidized theatre .................................................. -135 Chapter Seven. Conclusion ........................................................... 155 Appertdix. .......................................................................................... 159 . Biblrography.................................................................................... 16 1 Ab breviations APA Alberta Provincial Archives CEA City of Edmonton Archives CH Caigmy Heralcr CWTG Canadian Women's Theatre Guiid EB Eihtorrtort Bulletin EJ Edmonton Jmmal RC R6Ie Cal1 TEFYA Theatre Edmonton for Young Audiences TT Towrr Talk UAA University of Alberta Archives Preface It is a tniism to say that there is a great ded of theatre in Edmonton. Economic surveys have shown that there is more money spent in the city on cultural entertainment, including theatre, than on sports. Liz Nichoiis, the current theatre reviewer for the Edmonton JmmI, has often observed that Edmonton is "a theatre-mad town". How has this phenornenon corne about? 1s it due to the fact that Edmonton is the rnost northerly large city in Canada, and therefore may be presumed to be the coldest in winter, leading the public to seek their pleasure indoors? Or is it due to a steady growth of good theatre, and of theatre-going habits in the population? 1 propose to show that the latter is indeed the case. However, when the thesis subject was fxst suggested to me,' it was a matter of deciding where to begin. 1 knew that 1 would have to consult other authorities, and not rely simply on my own memones. But 1 reckoned without the sheer mass of archival materiai, and the way in which this material was scattered throughout the city. At first, 1 thought that the various types of theatre would be neatly packaged in the archives related to them. Thus, theatre at the University would be fowid in the University Archives, the community theatres in the city archives, and so on. But it was not so simple. The whole search was, more or less a crossword pdeexercise, with one name leading to another. In the Provincial Archives 1 did find much to do with provincial goverment hding and Iaws. But there was also archival material there for Walterdale Theatre Associates, and also a small amount about Theatre for Children 'Because 1 had iïved through, and participami in Edmonton theatre shce 1951. The University Archives has much about the Studio Theatre and other WLiversity theatncal ventures, but there is also a wealth of material there about the Canadian Women's Theatre Guild, In the City Archives there were many personal mes, which contained valuable information about diverse interests, such as those of Dick MacDonald, Mickey Macdonald and Bette Anderson. It was ofien a question of looking for a person or a group mentioned in several dierent tiles. Pemnal interviews were another source of matenal, and here I was very lucky to have a great many contacts fiom the earlier theatre days. For instance, Daisy Wilson gave me a big file collected by her late husband, Jack Wilson. Phillip Silver also lent me an early file of his own, to do with Theatre for Children and Playground Players. Most personal inte~ewshad to be backed up with actual data and dates from the various archives; the memories of people tend to be very muddled. For the actual writing of this material, I reaiised that 1 could not possibly go through the yean from 1920 to 1965, simply cnimming into each year what had happened, theaaically, in the city during that year. For this reason, 1 decided to write about the various branches of theatricd activity, and deal with each one in turn, noticing how a person, or an event, spanned two or more groups. At Victoria High School in the late nineteen-twenties, Eva O. Howard was instrumental in the development of a theahcal tradition at the school. Although she never taught dnima as a subject, she directeci a student play every year, and many of her students continued thei.work in theatre. At the end of the nineteen-twenties the Edmonton Little Theatre came into being, and the fht name of those who were involved in its begbhgs was that of Elizabeth Sterling Ham. She helped to develop Little Theatre memben in ail facets of theatre - acting, directing and design - and when she began in 1932 to work for the Depariment of Extension at the University of Alberta, her influence went out to towns ail over Alberta The snidy of drarna at the University of Alberta began in the 1940s, with Sidney Risk as its nominal head, and in the early nineteen-fitties it came hto its own under Robert Orchard, foUowed by Gordon Peacock, both of them men of vision, although very different fiom each ot her, I wiU also discuss audience education. It has become obvious to me that it was not only the actual groups working together, it was the groups' willingness and ability to change and adapt thernselves, and the people connected to these groups and advities being able to give their time and energy to varkd projects. h other words, many of the same people who were connected to a group would corne together with others to form a different group, or a co~ectedone. These are d streams or facets of theatre, and in this thesis 1 hope to show how the various strearns in Edmonton theatre fiowed together in the 1940s, and even more in the 1950s. Each facet of theatre involved one or more individuals, whose ideas and influence &ove forward the overail vision for theatre. The intereas of many of these people, and those who worked with them, often spanned severai different theatncal streams, wheuier of school, cornmunity or university. This led not ody to varied categories of theatre, but aiso to co-operation, and to the environment for the beginnings of professiod theatre in Edmonton in 196% Cha~terOne.

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