History of The Carolina Playmakers
In 1918, Professor Frederick Koch came to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to teach the University's first courses in playwriting. In that same year, he founded the Carolina Playmakers theatre company for the production of these original plays. Koch and the Playmakers mainly produced what they considered to be “folk plays.” Koch defined a folk play as being based on “the legends, superstitions, customs, environmental differences, and the vernacular of the common people.” He saw them as primarily “realistic and human,” and chiefly concerned with “man’s conflict with the forces of nature and his simple pleasure in being alive.”
Working with folk plays encouraged Koch's students to write about the small communities and rural populations they were likely familiar with, and, as in the experience of Paul Green, to address the experiences of "marginalized populations of the South," such as African-Americans and American Indians.
The Carolina Playmakers began touring locally in 1920, then state-wide the following year. In 1922, the first series of Carolina Folk Plays was published, which included five plays written and produced by the Playmakers. In 1925, Smith Hall, a building on campus previously used as a library and ballroom, was remodeled and dedicated as Playmakers Theatre for Playmakers performances.
A number of successful writers and actors honed their craft in the Carolina Playmakers. Novelist Thomas Wolfe wrote and acted in several plays as a UNC student - including taking the title role in "The Return of Buck Gavin" (also written by Wolfe) in the Playmakers' first bill of plays on March 14 and 15, 1919. Betty Smith, who would later write A Tree Grows in Brooklyn from her home in Chapel Hill, first came to town in 1936 as part of the WPA Federal Theater Project, and wrote many plays for the company. In the late 1940s, Andy Griffith had featured roles in several Playmakers performances, including Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado" and "HMS Pinafore."
Other notable writers associated with the Carolina Playmakers include Paul Green, Josefina Niggli, Kermit Hunter, and Jonathan W. Daniels.
Read more about this topic: Play Makers Repertory Company
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