Welcome to a free reading from Washington History: Magazine of the DC History Center (formerly the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.). We hope this essay will provide food for thought and discussion as well as diversion.

Sixty years ago, Washington’s much-admired Arena opened in a former movie on Mount Vernon Square, across the street from the city’s Carnegie Library (now home to the DC History Center). It came to a metropolitan area where live theater was found in church basements, university theater departments, and the venerable National Theatre, whose professional shows originated elsewhere and played for brief runs. Hard to imagine today, with so many resident theater companies like Studio, Signature, Shakespeare, Folger, Woolly Mammoth, Roundhouse, Olney, and others producing original works and featuring DC area performers, but in 1950 locally developed professional live theater was not to be found.

As former George Washington University Professor Edward Mangum describes in his first-person account, there was another issue here: segregation. The National Theatre segregated its audiences. In 1948 this segregation provoked organized protests and forced intransigent theatre managers to close their doors. (The National would reopen four years later to welcome all audiences.)

Mangum details his career in DC, what it took to open an avowedly non-segregated professional theater (including costs and dimensions), and the company members who supported his crusade, including his student and first assistant managing director, Zelda Fichandler and her husband Tom.

As the pandemic has shut down live theater, and as companies are producing new, online shows— including Arena’s current The 51st State—we look forward to a future where we again sit together in the presence of live art. “Washington's Emerges from Church Cocoon,” first appeared in Washington History 10-1 (spring 1998), © Historical Society of Washington, D.C.

Access via JSTOR* to the entire run of Washington History and its predecessor, Records of the Columbia Historical Society, is a benefit of DC History Center membership.

Copies of this and many other back issues of Washington History magazine are available for browsing and purchase online through the DC History Center Store: https://dchistory.z2systems.com/np/clients/dchistory/giftstore.jsp

ABOUT DC HISTORY CENTER The Historical Society of Washington, D.C., doing business as DC History Center, is a non-profit, 501(c)(3), community-supported educational and research organization that collects, interprets, and shares the history of our nation's capital in order to promote a sense of identity, place and pride in our city and preserve its heritage for future generations. Founded in 1894, the organization serves a diverse audience through collections, public programs, exhibitions, and publications. DC History Center welcomes visitors to its new home on the second floor of the historic Carnegie Library.

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Managing Managing Director Director Edward Edward Mangum Mangum and and Assistant Assistant Managing Managing Director Director Zelda Zelda Fichandler Fichandler put put the the

finishing finishing touches touches on on the the marquee marquee announcing announcing the the opening opening of of Arena Arena Stage, Stage, 1950. 1950. The The then- then-

revolutionary revolutionary theater-in-the-round theater-in-the-round was was born born while while Washington Washington was was struggling struggling over over whether whether to to

desegregate desegregate its its theater theater audiences. audiences. Author Author Mangum Mangum details details the the genesis genesis of of this this thriving, thriving, 48-year-old 48-year-old

Washington Washington institution. institution. All All photographs photographs appear appear courtesy courtesy of of the the author, author, except except as as noted. noted. HSW. HSW.

4 4 PRIMARY VOICES

Washington's Arena Stage Emerges from Church Cocoon

by Edward Mangum

July 31, 1948, with the final days For months, groups of students came to of a successful three-week run of ask me why I didn't open a theater and settle Oklahoma coming to an end, the only the problem for everybody. In the late spring legitimate theater in the capital of the United 1949, 1 took the first steps toward opening a States closed its doors. The National Theater, theater in the District. On August 16, 1950, for 113 years a showplace for presidents twoand years, two weeks, and two days after the public alike, and for a generation the city's National closed, the first production of the sole source of professional theater, suddenly first play at the Arena Stage opened to a became a second-run movie house. The only packed and enthusiastic house. Washington live theater remaining was the limited out- had its first resident professional acting com- put of three universities and a handful panyof and its first arena theater, and blacks amateur groups.1 and whites sat together in harmony. I was teaching theater at the time at That was when. How the Arena opened George Washington University. Throughout is a longer and more convoluted story. the city, people were indignant over the rea- son given for the National's closing: a dispute more than a decade of pro- with Actors' Equity Association, the union of ducing and directing plays in all professional actors in the , Washington, I had never directed over segregated audiences. African Americans theater-in-the-round nor had I seen an arena had never been seated in the theater with production. Articles on arena staging had whites, and, spurred by local activists, Equity appeared in the monthly Players Magazine, vowed it was past time to open audiences towhich had covered educational theater and all. The National vowed it would never related fields since 1923, and of which I was change. Equity boycotted the theater. Shows an associate editor. But I had paid scant at- from the prestigious Theatre Guild and other tention, involved as I was - like everyone I New York producers bypassed Washington knew as - in proscenium staging. I had also they toured the country. heard Walter Kerr, my major theater profes- sor in the early 1940s at Catholic University of America, say that theater-in-the-round was Notes begin on page 92. a temporary form used for staging obscure

5 Washington History, Spring/ Summer 1998 historic farces such as Ralph Roister Doister. I surrounded, I knew at long last, here was had no plans to produce Ralph Roister Doister. what I was looking for. Besides, Jones's the- I did have plans to open a new theater, ater was very small. Such a layout would however. Promoters and other business- wise easily fit into some of Washington's small Washingtonians said the money could not be movie houses and would be relatively inex- raised; real estate agents said no place was pensive to build. available; architects said permits would not Back in Washington, with Margo's the- be granted. Recklessly I told myself that they ater burned into my brain, I dug out my were wrong, and I began a search. I investi- drawing board and drafting instruments and gated an abandoned church on 14th Street, adapted Margo's plan to the little Hippo- N. W., a huge edifice with the usual pews and drome movie house at 9th Street and New sloping floor leading to the pulpit; old ware- York Avenue, N. W. Eight months later, Arena houses scattered throughout the city; and aStage swung open its door. few struggling movie houses. Each building We opened with all the excitement of a would have needed much expensive reno- Broadway premiere, but one nagging ques- vation to transform it into an auditorium tion lingered for company and staff alike: with a stage, fire curtain, dressing rooms, Were we or were we not a professional the- lighting grids, and all the trappings ofater? a How would the public view us? We proscenium theater. I even explored the beau- were a non-Equity group of mostly local ac- tiful old Belasco Theater on the east side of tors, directors, and technicians, many of Lafayette Square across from the White whom had volunteered for years in local House, then serving as a storehouse for thou- community theaters and universities. True, sands of dusty documents belonging to theour actors and directors received Equity scale Department of the Treasury. A Public Build- (the minimum), then $40 per week. But we ings Administration architect estimated thecould not afford to put into escrow the $1,200 cost of renovation - if the Belasco could be that Equity required to guarantee salaries in retrieved from government possession -case at of default. We feared that the press in an unreachable $1 million-plus. particular would regard us as just another At one point, Washington almost had amateur a venture. theater on a boat. The decommissioned, mo- There was something else we didn't torless, 347-foot Potomac was offered as scrap know that, had we known it, would have for $5,000. With a huge dance floor, state- given us chills. Among themselves, Washing- rooms, and bar with brass and mahogany fit- ton theater critics had given us six months tings, it could have been the theater show- before we folded. place of the nation. But after searching the Potomac shoreline, we failed to find a place events that would shape the artis- to dock it permanently, and the boat was tic style of the new Arena Stage began towed away to a Baltimore shipyard. for me on a Sunday evening in De- Then, in December 1949, I flew to cember 1936 when I ambled into the Mount Greenville, Texas, for a brief Christmas visit Vernon Place Methodist Episcopal Church, with my parents. To my surprise, for the pre- South, at Ninth Street and Massachusetts Av- vious two years they had been regular pa- enue, N.W. I expected to find a pre-Christ- trons of 's Theatre '49, America's mas worship service but was surprised to first professional theater-in-the-round, lo- witness an uninspired, one-act religious play cated in . We attended a matinee of staged in the sanctuary by the Mount Vernon Shakespeare's . As I watched Players, a group organized two months ear- the excitement of the audience and felt their lier by 19 church members. After the service, connection to the players whose stage they I introduced myself to the Players' business

6 These Evening Star clippings record the long battle by local and national activists to integrate D.C. theater audiences. In 1948 Actors' Equity boycotted the National over its refusal to seat African Americans. The theater shut down, reopened briefly as a movie house, was sold, and finally opened to integrated audiences in 1952. Courtesy, Washingtoniana Division, D.C. Public Library. manager. I told him I was a Methodist, new in town, working for the D.C. Un- employment Compensation Board, and would very much like to join his organi- zation. He asked if I could direct a church pageant or religious play. I said I was sure I could because I had been involved in a few in my church in Greenville, Texas. I also told him I had studied drama in col- lege, had written a couple of plays, and had been editor of two student newspa- pers, so I knew something about public relations. Walter Graham shook my hand and said, very seriously, "Congratula- tions! You are our new director!" It hap- pened almost that fast and was, as I was soon to discover, the happiest and the toughest job ever thrust upon me. It seems unbelievable today, but in 1937, the only plays produced - if any were - in the Protestant church in the United States were religious plays de- signed to instruct church congregations and young adults in proper Christian be- havior. A retired Methodist minister who first began his ministry in Nebraska in 1893 once told me that as a young man, he made speeches at Sunday school meet- ings on the evils of dancing, card play- ing, and especially the theater. The the- ater, he charged, caused those who portrayed "evil" characters to "become that character," resulting in moral degra- dation. By 1937, when the Mount Vernon players began their climb to prominence, the Methodist Church was still discour- aging the use of drama, if it mentioned drama at all. One of the few available pub- lished guides had appeared in 1932 titled

7 Washington History, Spring/ Summer 1998

(take a deep breath) Church Dramatics: A Brief sanctuary - and a real theater was created Manual on Dramatics with a Classified Descrip- there just for us. The 300-opera-chair audi- tive List of Plays for Educational, Devotional, torium now had a permanent stage 36 feet and Recreational Purposes, by E. O. Harbin, wide and 15 feet deep, flanked by wings of who insisted that the players find dramat- equal depth and 17 feet wide. Stage lighting ics to be fun, not work, and spiritually and with dimmers and a heavy main curtain were socially enriching. Determined to prevent installed. Behind the stage were dressing the Mount Vernon Players from joining the rooms, a makeup room, an office, and a large dreary annals of Methodist Church drama, scene shop where Sunday school classes had I knew I would have to proceed without been held. With doors opening on Massachu- official sanction. Fortunately Dr. John W. setts Avenue and K Street as they joined Rustin, Mount Vernon' s young and dynamic Ninth Street at Mount Vernon Square, site of new pastor, emerged as a supporter. He con- the Central Public Library, we were in an sistently encouraged and fought for the ideal location to build our audience. Players, as he quietly reinvigorated the en- By 1947, the Players had grown to more tire church. than 150 actors and technicians. The advent

Unknown to most Washingtonians, however, was that African Americans and whites had been seated together in the auditorium since the Players' inception in 1937. With the exception of Catho- lic University's theater, nowhere else in the capital could the two races mingle for theatrical without controversy.

For the next ten years, a reorganized of World War II had swelled the city's popu- Mount Vernon Players grew in strength andlation, augmenting our audiences and the wisdom and, luckily, in favor with God and diverse talents of our organization, which man. For the first three years, the Players now offered rigorous training for appren- worked evenings and weekends in a small, tices. Theater professionals, likewise caught 300-seat, Bible-class auditorium, staging up in the war effort, flocked to join the Play- plays for a handful of people in one- and two- ers, by now the only church-based, play-pro- night stands. The makeshift stage was a wide, ducing group of its kind in the country. Hascy shallow dais augmented by several large and Tarbox, from the Todd School in Woodstock, shaky platforms mounted on sawhorses ofIllinois, who had designed sets for Orson dubious ancestry. The Players presented Welles's Mercury Theatre, now designed and works that community theaters were produc- executed sets for the Players that combined ing around the country - Room Service, The permanent architectural forms with highly Late Christopher Bean, Anne of Green Gables colored, - stylized backdrops. Royal Navy and an occasional serious production such Lieutenant Ronald A.E. Marwood, assigned as Journey's End by R.C. Sherriff, a British drama about life in the trenches during World War I. Mount Vernon Place Methodist Episcopal Church, 900 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., In 1940, after six years of Rustin' s dogged as seen on the cover of its 75th anniversary efforts, a large new educational facility was publication, 1944. Its innovative pastor erected next to the church on K Street. The John W. Rustin supported Mangum men's Bible class moved out of the as he developed a small drama Undercroft Auditorium - the area under the group into a serious theater.

8 cvheAe cfau the Clouded Hfau6,olJ

I MOUNT VERNON PLACE METHODIST CHURCH y^/ / WASHINGTON, D. C. /y' to the British Embassy, had been an actor on With trained and experienced volunteers the Stage; he joined the Players. So now handling many of my duties, I enrolled did the young German Jewish refugee ac- in the renowned Department of Speech and tress Lilli Gettinger, whose husband had Drama at Catholic University of America. been stage manager for legendary director/ Under the inspired tutelage of the Reverend producer Max Reinhardt. Both appeared in Gilbert V. Hartke and Walter Kerr (later the William Saroyan's happily titled The Beau- brilliant New York Times drama critic), I re- tiful People. ceived a master's degree (1947) in theater and Catholics, Protestants, and Jews had instruction in new methods of directing, act- worked side by side in the Mount Vernon ing, and playwriting. Kerr had long before Players for years. Unknown to most Wash- turned to classics, originals, and experimen- ingtonians, however, was that African Ameri- tal forms, renouncing "warmed-over, cans and whites had been seated together in premasticated Broadway" in his selection of the auditorium since the Players' inception plays. I put this philosophy into action with in 1937. With the exception of Catholic the Mount Vernon Players. University's theater, nowhere else in the capi- Washington drama critics began to cover tal could the two races mingle for theatrical our shows for the first time in 1944. Twelve entertainment without controversy. Of to fifteen performances for each play now be- course, African Americans could not attend came the norm. Audiences approached 4,000 our church services; those who tried were for each production, and income, around gently ushered to the black Asbury United $150 per play in 1937, was now more than Methodist Church down the street. $1,550 per play, even though it derived from By spring 1944, Rustin and the church the old and revered Methodist custom of decided that an unprecedented full-time "passing the hat." Our audiences reserved Department of Drama should be estab- seats in increasing numbers. lished. Now on a full-time salary, I resigned The 1945-46 season consisted of The Twin my government job and fell to with renewed Menaechmi by Titus Maccius Plautus, The vigor. A professional School of the Theatre Shoemakers' Holiday by Thomas Dekker, The was established, with courses not offered byFuneral, or Grief a la Mode by Sir Richard most colleges and universities in the coun- Steele, The Duenna by Richard Brinsley try, as well as theaters for children, mari- Sheridan, and Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond onettes, and mummers. Rostand. On Thursday, September 20, 1945,

10 Washington's Arena Stage

Harry Traub, Josephine Booth, George Lytle, Ralph Hohenstein, and war refugee Lilli Gettinger of the Mount Vernon Players appear in the final scene of Saroyan's The Beautiful People. Such sophisticated fare was unusual for church- based dramatic groups in 1945.

readers of the Washington Post found a lead editorial, nine inches and 450 words long, titled "Plautus in Ninth Street." It read, "This looks like a very good place to squeeze in a few lines of appreciation and encouragement to the young men and women of the Mount

Vernon Players a good many people who read Plautus, ei- ther for fun or for the exercise of it, but the opportunity actually to see him performed does not offer itself very often nowadays, and we thought you might like to know about it. ... We can only report that, speaking for our- selves, we were surprised and delighted with" the performance.

The editorial then congratulated This brochure us describeson the church's School our choice of plays, closing of with,the Theatre, "This a no-professional training tion of giving plays that almost program all of started us may in 1944 that taught have heard of, and some of us playwriting, may have direction,read, speech, voice, mime, but which very few of us have theater ever history, hoped toand elementary fencing. see, strikes us as both enterprising and origi- nal. One may well hesitate before risking an evening on an amateur performance Theodore of,Viehman, say, they were staged each . . . Outward Bound, but Plautus inevitably . . . [has], sweltering para- Friday and Saturday doxically, the great charm nightof novelty." during The July and August on a simpli- box office phone never stopped fied ringing.replica ofOur an Elizabethan playhouse chests swelled with, I hope, erected pardonable on the plaza in front of the church. pride, and our spirits soared. Costumes and properties, makeup and light- Highlights of the 1946-47 ing season were werekept to a minimum. The audience Lysistrata '47 , an original play sat writtenon the hardby me steps that rose sharply 25 feet with music by Albert Berkowitz, to the based sanctuary on the entrance facing Ninth Street. Greek comedy by Aristophanes, We were and Thewide Pri- open to God's great sky and vate Wives of Wu Lung Fu, a thenew sound work ofbased heavy human traffic. on a twelfth-century Chinese play Before and eachstaged performance, I walked qui- in classical Chinese style. Shakespeare etly onto in Shirtthe plaza, faced the ascending Sleeves consisted of sixteen crowd, performances, and slowly removed my jacket and four each, of edited one-hour tie. versions The audience of A laughed and applauded, Midsummer Night's Dream, ,and every A Com-man on the hot cement steps rose edy of Errors, and Julius Caesar. and didArranged likewise. by Remember, it was 1947. The Thomas Wood Stevens, B. Idenpacked Payne, houses and loved everything.

11 Washington History, Spring /Summer 1998

Magazines and newspapers across the Reverend Gilbert Hartke, head of Catholic United States were filled with articles on the University's theater department, chats with actress Myrna Loy in 1945. That year the author studied Mount Vernon Players and their program. the latest directing, acting, and playzvriting From Stage Pictorial and China Monthly in methods in Hartke 's acclaimed program. New York to Talent Review in Hollywood, Courtesy, WD, DCPL, © Washington Post. from The Independent in Kansas City to the Daily News in Jackson, Mississippi, writers extolled our work. Letters poured in from Goldoni's gaudily costumed, eighteenth-cen- universities, community theaters, and tury The Fan, with a grand-opera-sized set- church groups asking for more information ting of a multicolored Italian plaza, street, on our program, and from individuals who and marketplace jumbled atop multiple lev- had been our guests offering praise and con- els, platforms, broad steps, and balconies fill- gratulations. ing the arching proscenium. Choreographed In spite of all this, as late as 1949, 1 was in a style called expressionism, in which the defending our program in letters and maga- play's emotional content is made visible to zine articles against church officials in all de- its viewers, the production captivated the nominations who believed that what we were audience and got us off to a rousing start. doing did not belong in the church. Fortu- Other exciting shows followed, includ- nately the naysayers were a small minority. ing the fifth-century B.C. Agamemnon of Aeschylus, directed by acting instructor head of George Washington's Natalie White, performed in the Edith Department of Speech during the Hamilton translation, attended by the dy- 1940s, L. Poe Leggette, had appeared namic Hamilton herself, and starring veteran as Count de Guiche in the Mount Vernon Mount Vernon actress Dorothy Ohliger as Players' production of Cyrano de Bergerac, Clytemnestra and new student and Congres- which I directed with Captain Andrew Nilles, sional Country Club tennis pro Henry and in which I played the leading role. DanilowiczThe as Agamemnon. Dark of the Moon, day after I received my master's degree by in Howard Richardson and William Berney, theater, Leggette invited me to join his starredfac- another new student, Zelda ulty in developing its first degree program Fichandler, as Barbara Allen. Arnold in theater. In September 1947, 1 began my Sundgaard's as- The Great Campaign was a new sistant professorship. script about political chicanery at the high- As it turned out, my three years at GWU est level and the first constructivist produc- were really a transition, but they did not starttion seen in Washington, which I had been out that way. Many Mount Vernon Players asked to do by the American National The- honored me by following me to GWU, enroll- atre and Academy in New York. ANTA had ing in theater courses, and appearing in been the chartered by Congress in 1935 "to ex- shows we produced as well as aiding in tech-tend the living Theatre beyond its present nical work. The type of plays and the newlimitations by bringing the best in the The- methods of staging I had learned at Catholic atre to every state in the Union." Congress, University and had produced at Mount however, had failed to fund ANTA, so it was Vernon Church, I now began to produce neither on a theater nor an academy. It had sur- the huge and complicated stage in the 1,502- vived for 14 years on donations and the la- seat Lisner Auditorium, a fully professional bor of volunteers, such as myself, who went house where Joan of Lorraine, starring Ingrid to New York to help when they could. Bergman, had premiered the year before. During fall semester 1948, 1 was invited I opened the 1947-48 season at GWU by the university to write an article on the- with a grand-scale production of Carlo ater for the 50th anniversary edition of the

12 Washington's Arena Stage

GWU publication Confidential from Washing- of congratulation and encouragement ton, an honor I still value greatly for putting poured in, including one from Hallie me in the company of such notable contribu- Flanagan Davis, head of the New Deal's fa- tors as J. Edgar Hoover, Edward C. Acheson, mous Federal Theatre Project. Representative Watson Davis, Arthur E. Burns, and Edward Jacob K. Javits of New York, who had intro- H. Condon. In "Toward a Living Theatre," duced a joint resolution in the House on Janu- which appeared as the entire January 1949 ary 24, 1949, "to provide for a national the- issue, I proposed to create an American Na- atre and a national opera and ballet," read tional Theatre by establishing a profes- my article into the Congressional Record on sional-plus-academic theater program in March 11, 1949. Two days later I received a every vital college and university in the letter from Speaker of the House Sam country. During the 1940s, there had been a Rayburn, a friend of my father since boy- major push to establish a national theater hood. "Dear Edward," he wrote, "I have similar to those in Europe. A sidebar to the greatly enjoyed reading your article. . . ," fol- article, "The Local Scene," described the lowed by a phone call promising as much theater program at George Washington help as he could provide. University. In early fafl 1949, Warner Watson of the Copies of the article were sent to more American National Theatre and Academy in than 20,000 alumni, leaders of arts groups, New York wrote to say that ANTA had on hand business executives, and politicians. Letters another unusual new play it wanted pro-

13 duced - by the best students of GWU's new a note saying I would take my talents else- theater program. ANTA would send two top where. That was when I began my search in professional actors to do the major roles, all ex- earnest for the theater that led to the Arena penses paid. Would I do the play? If the play Stage. proved a success in Washington, ANTA would bring the production in toto to New York. year I had lost in a futile search Here was the chance of a lifetime, to put for a building to house a proscenium into action what I had proposed in "Toward theater in Washington was now his- a Living Theatre," a first step to prove that tory. The day after I flew back from seeing such a venture could lead to a real national Margo Jones's theater in Dallas in December theater. I dashed into Professor Leggette's 1949, 1 made an appointment to measure the office, thrust the letter into his hands, andold Hippodrome movie house to see if it said, "Here's what we've been waiting for!" would house a theater-in-the-round. From We took the letter to President Cloyd Heck projection booth to screen, it was 65 feet long; Marvin, who read it slowly. Then, and I've from side to side, 36 feet; the ceiling rose 14 never forgotten the scene or the words, to 16 feet above a raked floor. The projection Marvin smiled and said, "We are not ready booth was perfect for installing a light switch- for New York. Why don't you two get your board and turntable sound equipment. students together and do a pageant for the Back at my apartment, I carefully drew nice ladies who take care of our rose garden?" a scaled floor plan on a large sheet of draw- When my contract to teach during the ing paper, an 18-by-22-foot stage on floor 1950-51 academic year appeared in my cam- level situated dead center, with tiers of seats pus mailbox, I returned it immediately with rising on four sides on which to set the opera

14 Washington's Arena Stage

ond, and the long sides of each row from the fourth through the seventh rose 18 inches above the one in front. No one in our audi- ences ever complained of not being able to see everything on the stage. With appropriate soundproofing, a theater office could be placed under the tier closest to the lobby with dressing rooms under the tier at the rear of the building. Unfortunately, the only two restrooms were also in the rear, which meant actors and audience would have to share them during performances. The front of the house had three great ad- vantages. There was a brightly lit marquee with flashing lights and enough large letters to spell out the names and dates of our shows. A glass-enclosed box office was already in place. The lobby was small but adequate. I now had to prepare a budget. I took bids from contractors to determine the cost of installing the tiers, a new level stage floor, heavy industrial carpet to cover the stage and entrance aisles to muffle the sound of the actors' feet, and a lighting grid attached to the stage's ceiling. We also needed a bank of Virginia Zanner, Edward Thomas, and two dimmer switches to control the lighting, turn- crew members set up a simplified Elizabethan tables with speakers over the stage for mu- playhouse on the church plaza at Ninth Street sic and sound effects, additional wiring, and Massachusetts Ave., N. W. (opposite), for dressing rooms, and office equipment. a "Shakespeare in Shirt Sleeves" performance, summer 1947. The program (above) noted that The cost of at least four weeks of pre- outdoor theater was cooler than the church's opening advertising on TV, radio, and news- un-air-conditioned auditorium. Competing papers had to be estimated, as well as modern traffic noises mimicked the street photographs, programs, posters, and tickets clamor that once penetrated the roofless Elizabethan theaters. for at least 15 weeks. Salaries for actors, directors, and technicians had to be set. I was determined to pay actors and directors the chairs already in the theater. I drew in seven Equity minimum, but I knew I could not raise rows of seats with a center aisle on each of enough money to bank an Equity deposit that the two tiers on the long side of our space, would guarantee salaries. We would, I was and three rows on the short side. With seats sure, have to open as a non-Equity theater. precisely placed, our theater would seat 250 An opening play had to be chosen, plus at (Margo's theater seated only 198). least two or three to follow, with costs of roy- I also sketched side elevations, with alties (paid in advance), costumes, and prop- views of seats rising on a gentle curve to en- erties to consider. There were also taxes, in- sure good visibility from each row. The first surance, licenses, attorneys' and architects' row on all four sides was on the stage floor, fees, and incorporation papers. the second row rose six inches above the first, The total cost for every conceivable ex- the third row was 12 inches above the sec- pense, plus a $1,000 contingency fund, came

15 to $15,000. Today this might be pocket kind of theater if it were a for-profit under- change, but in 1950 it was a lot of money. taking. In that case, if they didn't make some- Fourteen years before, when I had arrived in thing on their investment or break even, they Washington, a beginning government salary might be able to sell their stock for a portion was $1,260 per year, not per week - per year. of the original cost. In a non-profit venture, By 1950 average salaries had not climbed far their money would be gone forever the mo- out of that cellar. ment it was contributed. I was determined to set ticket prices at A profit-making corporation was there- our theater as low as possible - high enough fore chartered under the laws of the State of to break even at half a house, but not so high , with common stock available at that the average government worker could $50 a share. I obtained pledges by simply not afford to see our shows. The break-even calling a few people together, usually in point for most local community theaters at someone's home or apartment. Most were the time was 60 percent of the house. Our friends - students, fellow actors and theater theater would conform to the customary six technicians. Several were audience members evening performances and two matinees a I had known during my 13 years in Wash- week. ington, and some were friends of friends. I After carefully figuring a reasonable in- would spread the proposed designs and take for the theater, I set ticket prices at $1.90 sketches on the floor, describe the theater's for evenings and $1.50 for matinees. We operation, distribute copies of my operating thought we would be able to fill the house budgets with income figures, and ask for in- and the theater would begin to show a profit formal pledges to buy stock. People wrote at half a house. If all went as planned, we their pledges on a card and gave them to me. would succeed. No one was allowed to buy more than 20 Fundraising was going to be a problem: shares; some could afford only one or two. I knew of no one willing to contribute his Weor repeated this procedure every day or so, her hard-won cash to a nonprofit enterprise and amazingly, after only ten days, the pro- as shaky as a legitimate theater. A few friends spective stockholders had pledged $10,000. said they were willing to gamble on a new We were ready to go into business. Trusting

16 Washington's Arena Stage

The Players' 1946 production of Cyrano de ing the Mount Vernon Players' box office for Bergerac features, foreground, the author, many years, built Arena's subscription au- Joe Church, GWU speech professor L. Poe dience and treated all members of the audi- Leggette, and George Lytle with stylized sets by nationally noted set designer Hascy ence like close friends, ensuring their faith- Tarbox. Leggette brought Mangum to GWU ful attendance. Delma Smith became our to create its theater program in 1947. concerned house manager and master car- penter, eagerly and smoothly combining the two jobs with almost no sleep while holding my theater experience and acknowledging down a third job as a policeman at President my efforts thus far, the stockholders elected Harry Truman's White House. In addition me president, chairman of the board, man- were many devoted ushers, including head aging director, and CEO of Arena Stage. ushers Charline Whitmore, Lucy Rumley, By now I had already chosen the two and Ruth Wright who had trained with the opening shows I was to direct and had set Mount Vernon players. up a tight-knit production staff, the multi- In fact, every member of the Arena Stage talented people who would be responsible staff - technical and front of house - had had for the daily operation of the theater and its years of training and experience with the phenomenal success during the almost two Mount Vernon Players. The Arena was years I was at its helm. The theater staff was merely an extension of the Mount Vernon headed by Vera Mowry Roberts, now a dis- Players, who had literally moved across the tinguished professor emeritus at Hunter street from the church stage to the new stage College and the Graduate School of the in the old movie house - and suddenly City University of New York. Then a GWU turned professional. professor, Roberts became Arena's first As managing director, I appointed one scene designer and technical director. Now of my theater students - the first to receive that we had replaced the traditional pic- a GWU master's degree in theater arts - to ture-frame stage with a virtual plastic cube be my assistant managing director. Zelda of space viewed from all four sides, she dis- Fichandler had had no previous experience, covered the use of suspended three-dimen- but she had studied in my classes, acted and sional scenery and stage floor "backdrops" served as my assistant in GWU productions, unique to arena design (until then, no other and understood my theories and practices. arena theater used scenery of any kind). During the weeks before the opening, Zelda Leo Gallenstein, later appointed to the staff obtained all of the licenses necessary for the of the Kennedy Center for the Performing operation of the theater. In addition, since I Arts, became our first lighting designer and was rehearsing our opening show day and the first to make arena lighting an art by night across the street in the Mount Vernon using it to set moods and treating it as an Place Church, she kept an eye on construc- "actor" entering and leaving the stage. tion crews as they built the new center stage, Albert Berkowitz, then on staff with the seating, and overhead lighting grid. She also National Symphony Orchestra, became supervised many volunteers, including a Arena's music and sound master. He number of our stockholders, who cleaned "scored" every show, by establishing the mu-dirty, gum-infested gaggle of theater sic as an organic component of the seatsproduc- to be installed in the theater's four tion, which was never done in those tiers. days After the first two shows, I assigned except in film. Zelda seven plays - six in the first season The front-of-house staff included and Mary one in the second - to direct and stage. Coe Mangum, then my wife, who Her became husband, Thomas Fichandler, offered to box office manager and who, after serve,manag- without salary, as business manager.

17 Zelda would eventually succeed me as ing cities streamed in to audition. Dozens of Arena's managing director. others joined us during the following months, Arena Stage's first acting company con- outstanding among them Pernell Roberts, sisted of Lester Rawlins, Henry Oliver, Vir- George Grizzard, Henry Danilowicz, Angela ginia Thurston, Ionia Zelenka, Dorothea Jack- Nilles, Dick QJNeill, Angela Paton, Dorothy son, Stuart Smith, and Orville French. All had Ohliger, Harry Scully, and Mary Pray Conlin. experience in professional, community, or We opened on August 16, 1950, with an university theaters. An amazing 150 actors eighteenth-century comedy, Oliver Gold- from New York, Washington, and surround- smith's She Stoops to Conquer. We chose it for

18 Washington's Arena Stage

Arena Stage's first acting company and On August 17, the Washington Times- directors survey the just-completed theater- Herald's Ernie Schier, under the headline, in-the-round, 1950. Seated clockwise, from "First Arena Offering Clicks with Audience," front, Orville French, Dorothea Jackson, Stuart Smith, Virginia Thurston, Henry reminisced about his "last previous encoun- Oliver, Lester Rawlins, and Ionia Zelenka. In ter with 'She Stoops to Conquer' ... in a the print jacket is Assistant Managing packed high school auditorium many years Director Zelda Fichandler. Managing ago . . . performed by a Federal Theatre Director Mangum stands at center. Fichandler succeeded Mangum in 1952 and group." He compared the "completely en- went on to a long and successful association thralled" high school students with the with the theater, retiring as artistic director Arena's grown-up audience, noting that "at in 1991. my first visit to the Hippodrome theater the other night, I found the adult audience re- acting to the same play with some of the same its wit schoolboy and excitement . . . with thefast-developing audience action, and - let's face it practically - deposited because in the laps of the ac- there were no royalties to pay. It tors - and viceromped versa." Schier lauded the ac- across the center stage to a packed, tors "ample supplysurprised, of talent," concluding, and enthusiastic house, eventually "What all this adds up to, is that Washing-playing to 5,620 starved theater lovers. ton hasI'll a new and different let sort of theater the Washington drama critics tell about it. that should be heartilyTheir welcomed. Get on comments went on for days. Richard down there at your earliestCoe opportunity." wrote in the Washington Post. August 20. 1950. "Our town can take pride in our new Arena

Theatre Stockholders of Arena Stage, Inc. the Washington AsCivic of Opening Night,Theatre August 16, 1950 - and you have to be long in the tooth to remember Mr. & Mrs. Leslie that Amouri - this Edward Mangumcity has not had a Albert resident M. Berkowitz acting Clare P. Mangum company. . . . William Taking S. Berkowitz countless Martin Marimont bull sessions by Harold P.the Black horns, Jeanette Ed- Marr ward Mangum Nancy Lee Bradfieldhas bravely Louise Gertz Mills chucked his G.W. Xavier Martin Brock teaching Mrs. F. James job Mulcahy and corralled a Frederick surprisingly J. Chubb S. Clark effi- Munson cient company Mr. &into Mrs. Israel Convisser making Joland Oberly the Arena's first production Henry J. Danilowicz some- Dorothy Ohliger thing that can Mrs. delight Ida Diamond everyone Leo B. Orbach in town. . . . There Edward Ehrlich they will Mr. & Mrs. Martinsee Packman what can be done when a deter- Zelda Fichandler Leah M. Reese mined hand finally takes the risk. Richard A. Glaeser Vera Mowry Roberts . . . While it's naturally too early Vladimir Orinoff Alan Rosenthal to tell what future productions Robert C. Hogan Saul Rosenthal will be like, certainly this opener Ralph Hohenstein Bess Davis Schreiner augurs well." Coe ended his re- Joel S. Kaufman Delma Smith view by urging readers to come. Mr. & Mrs. J. Burke Knapp Herman Sturm "For Washington now does have Victoria Kuhn Louis Teitelbaum a resident acting group and its Emanuel Lerner Elizabeth Zanner first effort at least is well worth Jack Lee Maddox your support."

19 Washington History, Spring/ Summer 1998

fashions, a response well deserved by the adventurous spirits who remade the Hippo- drome theatre into a handsome, intimate and inviting home of the living drama." Two weeks later, Variety, the New York show business bible, took notice. In its Au- gust 30 issue, under the headline "Washing- ton Taking to Theatre-in-the-Round; Arena Stage Clicking," its correspondent wrote, "After its first two weeks of theater-in-the- round, Washington is showing every sign of liking it. Arena Stage ... is stretching the . . .

booking for an additional week the cast is strong enough to carry on by itself after the novelty wears off remains to be seen." Critical notices for Of Mice and Men, our second production, were equally gratifying. Washington's reviewers were surprised and, thankfully, happy that our acting company could so easily make the transition from eigh- teenth-century farce to twentieth-century tragedy. Tom Donnelly of the Washington Daily News reviewed the play on September 12. The program for She Stoops to Conquer, Under the headline, "Remember John Arena Stage's premiere engagement, Steinbeck, the Playwright?" Donnelly noted accentuates the novelty of theater-in-the- that Of Mice and Men was probably the most roundfor Washingtonians. Arena chose the parodied play of the day, which "tends to di- 18th-century work in part because there were minish a theatrical work," and he worried that no royalties to pay. the play "might suffer more than most at the hands of what used to be called in the old days Two days later, a somewhat puzzled and a stock company," especially one that had just skeptical Schier phoned to ask me if he could successfully presented She Stoops to Conquer. see the play again, but this time from the Donnelly "could not quite believe that last opposite side of the stage. After sitting week's bewigged and beruffled fops would through a second performance, he said rather turn very convincingly into this week's mi- sheepishly, "Heaven help us, it's the same gratory workers. I am gratified to be able to play!" Later he invited me to guest-write his report that on the whole the transition has column, describing other foolish goings-on been well managed, and that Mr. Steinbeck's in the Arena. Jay Carmody, writing for the Evening Star on August 17, under the headline "Round Dorothea Jackson, Stuart Smith, Ionia Zelenka, Drama Makes a Bow in Capital," said much and Orville French captivate the crowd on the same. After noting that the theater "made opening night of She Stoops to Conquer. In this intimate setting, players could literally a spirited bow to Washington last night," he touch the audience, and vice versa. General recorded the "complete approval" by the Omar Bradley open took a front-row seat, his capacity audience "of the newest in drama long legs extending onto the stage.

20 Washington's Arena Stage play takes very kindly to 'theatre-in-the- thusiastic and versatile, the direction has been rouncT staging." tops, making the most of the intimacy of the I feel like saying right here, "That's show center stage idea." business, Mr. Donnelly," but I won't. For the next eight grueling months, we Donnelly also noted that Jack Carter, plowed on, show after show. On August 16, Arena's first African- American actor, was 1951, Arena Stage celebrated its first birthday. especially "excellent as the aged Negro who That night we reached, for us, a staggering 395 is denied human companionship more arbi- performances. In 12 months Arena had pro- trarily, but not more finally, than Mr. duced 17 different plays, a record for any pro- Steinbeck's other lonely characters." fessional repertory theater. We had performed On December 9, less than four months for more than 70,000 people. The play that later, New York's Billboard carried a story head- night, which had been running for weeks, was lined "Arena-Type Theatre Is D.C. Fave." Re- 's The Importance of Being Earnest. marking on Arena's large audiences, Billboard After the show, we threw ourselves a wrote, "the theatre-in-the-round at the party. Helping us celebrate were notables and Hippodrome's Arena Stage is apparently here just ordinary folks. D.C. Commissioner to stay. The idea has taken hold easily in the Joseph Donohue spoke, as did drama critics nation's capital Richard Coe and Ernie Schier. Lester Rawlins well in a highly varied rep spoke for the acting company and Edward

21 Washington History, Spring/ Summer 1998

R. Gray, who had been loyal patrons since the Mount Vernon days.

early October, we opened our 1951-52 season with Shake- speare's Julius Caesar. We were now a fully Equity company, having put away enough money by the end of the first sea- son for the required es- crow deposit. Newly acquired national adver- tising was now paying the entire cost of printing our expanded programs. The company, too, had changed to include Lester Rawlins, Henry Oliver, Roy Poole, Albert Corbin, Pernell Roberts, Arthur Carnes, Dorothea Jackson, Angela Paton, and Bernard Diamond, with guest actors added when needed. Blessed with a large audience regardless of what was playing, we were free to experiment with staging and the choice and lengths of runs of our plays. The Edward Mangum, photographed in 1982. Washington drama crit- ics' acceptance of us as a R. Gray for our large and loyal audience. fully professional theater gave us confidence, Guests included Engineer Commissioner and the fears of amateurism that had gripped Brigadier General Bernard L. Robinson; us in the beginning were now "put aside like Georgia Niece Clark, Treasurer of the United a shabby old coat at the door, never to be put States; Luther B. Evans, Librarian of Con- on again." gress; Senator Theodore F. Green, and repre- Those large audiences included busloads sentatives of half a dozen foreign embassies. of school children who arrived almost After the speeches, we shared with the audi- weekly to attend plays they were studying ence a birthday cake baked in the form of from dreary textbooks. I was standing one Arena's interior, with one candle burning. day in our lobby as a group of students The first slice went to Mr. and Mrs. Edward poured out following a performance of Julius

22 Washington's Arena Stage

Caesar. I heard one little boy say to another, back from all the theaters I was shown was "That's the first time I ever understood this." He dug into a pocket of his coat and Shakespeare!" From every embassy in town,retrieved a much-folded clump of paper that ambassadors to the lowest clerks loyally he at-thrust at me, smiling. I slowly unfolded tended our shows, especially since many the ofclump. It was an Arena Stage program our plays were from their own treasury for of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. classics. I was even invited to speak on arena staging in several embas- of a growing sies, including the British, problem with ar- which I was told was a thritis, in 1952 1 took "first" for an American. The my doctor's orders and left State Department regularly the Arena Stage and all its brought foreign directors to wonderful people. I had Arena to see an example of been offered the director- American culture. One of ship of a new theater at Fort the greatest compliments I Ruger in warm Honolulu, ever received was when a Hawaii. On an April after- Danish director asked me noon, I came out of Arena's where in Europe I had re- front doors after gathering ceived my training. After the last of my many belong- viewing our theater and ings from my cluttered desk several of our rehearsals, di- under the North Tier. I rector Andre Villiers re- paused under the marquee, turned to , acquired which read in large crimson one of its famous circuses, letters, "Now Playing Dark and converted it into a the- of the Moon," the last play ater-in-the-round. I was told I was to direct for the Arena. later that the French Acad- I glanced across the street at emy promptly dropped him the Mount Vernon Place from its distinguished mem- Methodist Church, so near bership. This Washington Post advertisement and yet so far away. A small While visiting Berlin in reflects the community's response group to of Mount Vernon Arena's premiere engagement, 1950. fall 1954, 1 was invited to the The author designed the curving Players logo was sitting on the home of the distinguished after Walter Kerr suggested that grass in the bright spring actor O.E. Hasse. At dinner curved lines attract more attention sunshine, as I used to do, that night, he looked pierc- than straight ones. their backs against the ingly at me through his warm south wall in the monocle and said, "I toured your country for shelter of the church. After a long moment, three months in 1949. What was I shown? they rose as one, raised their hands, and Some young people learning to act in uni- waved - and I waved back. E versities. Some older people pretending to act in what were called 'community theaters.' At Yale, I was shown a switchboard. And in the capital of the United States, there was noEdward Mangum, producer, director, lecturer, theater." Some days later, I met Willi Schmidt, and founder and first managing director of Arena one of Germany's foremost directors. Stage, "I is a retired Minnie Stevens Piper Profes- toured your great country for a few months sor of Theater Arts from St. Edward's Univer- in 1951," he said, "and all I cared to bring sity, Austin, Texas.

23 Washington History, Spring/ Summer 1998

Russo, Jean B. 'The Wonderful Lady and the Fourth of Books compiled by the District's court sys- July: Popular Culture in the Early National Period tem and now housed in the District of Co- [Anna Maria Thornton]/' Maryland Historical Magazine lumbia Archives. Each volume lists the 90 (1995): 180-93. names of bride and groom alphabetically, Saner, Hilary, Robert MacCoun, and Peter Reuter. "On with their date of marriage, and references the Ubiquity of Drug Selling Among Youthful Offend- the book and page number of the bound ers in Washington, D.C., 1985-1991: Age, Period, or record books. The 1877-1885 volume contains Cohort Effect?" Journal of Quantitative Criminology 11 (December 1995): 337-62. sample marriage forms and a 12-page alpha- betical list of ministers and their churches for Seifert, Donna, et al. "Archeological Data Recovery, the period covered. The 1870-1877 volume Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the Ameri- costs $28 and is available from Willow Bend can Indian Mall Museum Site." Report prepared for Smithsonian Institution by John Milner Associates. 1998. Books, 39475 Tollhouse Road, Lovettsville, Va. 20180-1817. The 1877-1885 volume costs Teute, Fredrika J. "'In the Gloom of Evening': Margaret $35 and is available from Wesley E. Bayard Smith's View in Black and White of Early Wash- ington Society." Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Pippenger, 2909-A, South Woodstock Street, Society 106 (1996): 37-58. Arlington, Va. 22206, 703-998-8920.

Women

Glover, Lorri M. "Between Two Cultures: The Worlds NOTES of Rosalie Stier Calvert." Maryland Historical Magazine 91 (1996): 85-94. Washington's Arena Stage Landman, Ruth H. "Washington's Yard Sales: Women's Edward Mangum, pp. 4-23 Work, But Not for the Money." City and Society 1 (1987): 148-61. 1 . An extended version of this essay with supporting materials is on deposit at The Historical Society of Seifert, Donna J. "Within Site of the White House: The Washington, D.C, Library. The author would like Archaeology of Working Women." Historical Archaeol- to thank his beloved, long-suffering, and devoted ogy 25 (1991): 82-108. wife Maria Francisca Martinez-Mangum, without whose love and care these past 30 years this article Valk, Anne M. "Separatism and Sisterhood: Race, Sex, could not have been written. and Women's Activism in Washington, D.C., 1963- 1980." Duke University, Ph.D., 1996. Frederick Gutheim Jane C. Loeffler, pp. 24-45 District of Columbia Marriage Records Index 1. This article draws upon Gutheim's unpublished au- Two additional volumes of District of tobiographical notes, most of which are undated. Where titles are lacking, the first few words of the text Columbia Marriage Records, compiled by are used to identify the document. For their support Wesley E. Pippenger and Dorothy S. Provine and encouragement, the author thanks Wilt Corkern, and covering 1870-1877 and 1877-1885, have Camille Larson, Gail Rothrock, Sugarloaf Regional been added to those previously published for Trails, Inc., and above all, the Gutheim family. 1811-1858 (1994) and 1858-1870 (1996). Pro- 2. Frederick Gutheim, "The Frank Lloyd Wright I Knew," paper delivered at the National Building jected volumes of these essential records will Museum, Nov. 5, 1982, Frederick Gutheim Collec- list marriages performed in Washington tion, American Heritage Center, University of through 1900. According to the compilers, Wyoming. many couples from neighboring counties and 3. Gutheim, memoir, "A growing sense of identity. . . ," distant locations chose to be married in the Nov. 28, 1967, Gutheim Collection, AHC, UW. 4. Ibid. nation's capital, making these volumes valu- 5. Gutheim, memoir, "Upon being admitted. . . ," Dec. able to many local historians. The informa- 5, 1967, Gutheim Collection, AHC, UW. tion is culled from the Marriage Record 6. Gutheim, memoir, A growing sense of identity. . . .

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