Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Workshop Players Part 2

While doing a little research on Workshop Players, I found a few early clippings and articles that might be of interest to fans of the acting troupe. (Click on each for a larger, readable version.)

As you remember from yesterday's post, the origin of the Workshop Players was a group of Clearview High School students who wished to continue to present plays even after their high school graduation. The Lorain Journal had a small article in its August 19, 1947 edition about their very first play.

By 1951, Workshop Players had not yet moved to their current home in the former one room schoolhouse on Middle Ridge Road. Here's an article from the Amherst News-Times (below) from that era highlighting Jean Schaeffer's role in The Valiant.

May 4, 1951 article
Here's a pair of articles from December 1952 from the Amherst News-Times. The first one is about the one-act Christmas plays that the group was presenting for the holidays, and the second mentions the upcoming move to the Middle Ridge location.
December 12, 1952 article
December 19, 1952 article
By 1953, Workshop Players were in their new home. Here is a small promotional article (below) about their upcoming play, Ladies in Retirement that appeared on the front page of the April 24, 1953 Amherst News-Times. The photo features Bunny Ross and Duane Hinds.
April 24, 1953 article
Here's a front page 1955 article (below) from the Amherst News-Times of January 28, 1955 about the upcoming production of Would-Be Gentleman. The photo features Bill Penton in his role as Mr. Jourdain, and Dan Strauss as the Son of a Grand Turk.
Bill Penton also enjoyed some publicity for his acting career in the April 1955 issue of American Motorcycling. The article below mentions that the 1954 National Jack Pine Champion probably was making his last stage appearance for a while because "Uncle Sammy slated him to play a role in the armed forces."

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Side note I found the list of new MC clubs added in 1955 on Penton portion interesting too. Rae

Dan Brady said...

HI Rae!
I thought that was interesting too! I'm glad you did as well!
Dan

Loraine Ritchey said...

Jean Schaeffer my mentor introduced me to Workshop when I was newly arrived from England. She literally coerced me into playing Elvira in Blithe Spirit and I was so lucky to have her as Madam Arcarti- I learned so much from Jean I loved her dearly. I will always remember her as MERLIN in LCMT production of Camelot https://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/that-mentoring-woman-jean-schaeffer/

Dan Brady said...

Hi Loraine,
Thanks for your comment. Through your blog, I was aware of your friendship with Jean Schaeffer and was hoping you would see this post.
Dan

Loraine Ritchey said...

I always read your posts ! all of them