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American stock company management as reflected in the career of O. D. Woodward, 1897-1922
Abstract
The career of O. D. Woodward spans the years of the active American stock theatre renaissance, which started about the time the Theatre Syndicate began in 1896 and lasted until the early 1920s. Woodward managed successful permanent stock organizations in Kansas City, Omaha, and Denver during these years, making him an appropriate subject of study. Permanent stock consisted of a company under the aegis of one manager located in a city for an indefinite period of time. It offered a community an ensemble of hard-working, competent actors who presented a repertoire of recent Broadway and Road productions during a season of forty weeks from late August until May. Stock companies provided audiences with affordable theatre which came as close as possible to the staging and interpretation of the original productions. In studying Woodward's various companies during these years, I have settled on five areas to examine: Morality and Social Change discusses attitudes defined by national trends and local concerns as reflected onto the stage; Audiences and Management Practices considers the people who regularly attended stock productions and the way Woodward catered to them to encourage them to patronize his theatres; Production Elements examines the sets, costumes, use of supernumeraries, and Belasco-style realism as practiced by Woodward; Repertoire studies the plays performed by Woodward's companies and how their subject matter reflected American stock audience preferences; and Actors investigates the lifestyle of stock actors and discusses selected performers hired by Woodward during this year. The dissertation also contains one chapter on the choices made during the first year Woodward attempted stock in Kansas City; one which details Woodward's other theatrical interests, including his relations with the Syndicate and the Shuberts as a theatre manager in a time of great change in the American theatre; and one which provides an overview of the four seasons he worked in Spokane, 1918-1922.
Subject Area
Theater|American history|Biographies
Recommended Citation
Ehlers, D. Layne, "American stock company management as reflected in the career of O. D. Woodward, 1897-1922" (1995). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9700081.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9700081