Playmakers boasts a varied and exciting history
By KAREN ROSEN
How many theatres in the United States
have histories just as exciting and varied as
the plays they have staged? Ford's Theatre in
Washington certainly qualifies, since Abra
ham Lincoln attended a fatal performance
within its wails. -
A few months before Lincoln was shot,
Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman was on his
march to the sea and he quartered his horses
in a theatre-to-be: the Playmakers Theatre. It
was a library at the time, and its bookcases
made a crackerjack stable for the Michigan
cavalry. About 11 5 years later, James Reston
Jr.'s new play, Sherman the Peacemaker
made its debut in the former library.
Remove the stacks, and you could have
had a dance hall. Not a bad idea, but it had
already been tried in 1849 when the building
was constructed. Named the University Ball
room, it aroused ire because people were
not too keen on dancing back then.
Instead of wasting the building, university
off icials quickly renamed it Smith Hall, after
the man who financed its construction, and
turned it Into a library. '
' The building, designed by New York archi
tect A.J. Davis, had the distinguished look a
hall of learning deserved. Davis combined
unusual touchs with the Creek classical
revival style. The walls were made from
205,000 bricks that were fashioned and fired
in Chapel Hill. Then the bricks were plas
tered and marked to resemble stonework.
Davis knew the value of cheap labor. He
found a convict in the state penitentiary
who carved capitals of wheat, ears of corn
and tassels on the columns, a far cry from
the Creek Corinthian acanthus leaves. Davis
paid $10 for labor and materials.
Renovations were just completed on the
theatre costing $170,000.
At the same time students were poring
Over their studies on the main floor of Play
makers, the basement was being put taother
uses. One part served a the chemistry labo
ratory. The other was the campus bathhouse
Later, University officials hatched a plan
to house another strange combination within
the building walls. Playmakers became a
law school," and an agricultural experiment
station. The station conducted analyses of
mmeral yvaters, research into a method for
making vinegar, the growing of sugar beets
and the value of pine straw and cowpeas.
These were noble efforts, and later agricul
tural experiments were turned over to North
Carolina State University.
If the Tylenol deaths had occurred in North
Carolina several decades ago, investigators
may have turned to Haymaker's occupants,
for help. Some of the earliest experiments in
. modern criminology were conducted by the
local coroner there. He instigated studies to
identify poisons used in murder and suicide
cases. '
In 1925, the building finally found its true
calling. The Carolina Playmakers, under the
direction of Frederick H. Koch, had become
so successful that they needed a theatre of
their own. The trustees gave them the hall,
and Smith Hall became the first state sup
ported theater in America that was dedi
cated to the development of native drama.
Among Koch's, proteges were Thomas
Wolfe and Paul Green, whose namesake
houses half of the Playmakers Repertory
Company's shows.
Wolfe, of course, is famous for the line,
"You can't go home again." He did not make
it to honor his old playhouse, but nine famed
alumni journeyed to their old stomping
grounds in September to rededicate their
training stage after its facelift: Dr. Matt
Powers on the. soap opera The Doctors
(James Pritchett, an Emmy winner for his
role), Cooter on The Dukes of Hazzard Ben
Jonesx and a new face on Dallas, Fay
Hauser, who also appeared in Roots It,
are faces familiar to TV. viewers.
The other returnees have performed so
many roles that ifs impossible to identify
them with one character. Sheppard Strud
wick's credits include more than 50 feature
fims, and he was the first Playmaker to
garper national acclaim. Eugenia Rawls ap
peared on Broadway in The Little Foxes' for
more than 1,000 performances and has star
red In three recent one-woman shows.
George Crizzard was an Emmy winner for
The Oldest Living Graduate and originated a
role in Broadway's Whose Afraid of Virginia
Woolf?. He received a 1982 Alumni Distin
guished Award. William Trotman was the
former director of the UNC Institute of Out
door Drama as well as an actor, director and
teacher. Chapel Hill residents Foster and
Marion Fitz-Simons also acted and taught,
Foster appearing in Paul Green's The Lost
Colony.
Nationally-known alumni who did not
make it back to their theatrical roots (be
sides Wolfe) included Andy Griffith; Louise
Fletcher, Oscar winner for One Flew Over
the Cuckoo's Nest; band leader Kay Kyser;
composer Richard Adler, and novelist Betty
Smith.
The Playmakers Theatre is still bustling
with set builders, harried directors, techni
cians, and emoting actors. Three Sisters, the
department of dramatic art's first production
of the season, recently finished its run, just
in time for the cast and crew of PRC's Moon
for the Misbegotten to move in. The Eugene
O'Neill drama opens Octv 27 and runs
through Nov. 14.
Small wonder that in 1974 Playmakers
Theatre was designated a National Historic
Landmark. Much of its mystique still lingers.
Karen Rosen is a staff writer for The Daily
Jit Heel. ' .
a y
ft-
r .. ..
S 'V
r
... -S5-" ;
? v ... s -.
.7. : X .
''
X
It! I
i - - J&F 1
V.-.v.v.V. -.;.;.. .'.' r. . . . V.v. . .; t
- " Vv J
DfHirlie photo
1 ..w'y'"'"',' '' "
Playmakers Theatre at one time was called Smith Hsil, after the man who donated money for its construction
... before it became a theatre it was a law school and a place for agricultural experiments
- . I i
t'iii h
Uh;' I
-y-rrr -Aft
4 I ;
"
? , '
y ''
- - V
. ff
'if
i - , x , i -
... - i ,
;'W;::ow::-;wM.v.vvv
i!
v.
-r
i
... ....... w-x.
OTHScott Sharp
Renovations on the Playmakers Theatre were recently comoieted
. . .classical Greek revival style accented with unusual touches
Weekend, October 21, 1982
. From copy In North Carolina Collection UNC Library, Chapel Hill
In ieS3, tho University Library was in Playmakers building
.stacks were later removed to make the building a ballroom