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The Carolina Playmakers and the founding of UNC Press

Frederick Koch’s folk-play company of 1918 and the university press of 1922, the two institutions that made Chapel Hill a literary place.

In briefFrederick Koch's Carolina Playmakers, organized in 1918, and the University of North Carolina Press, founded in 1922, made Chapel Hill a place where plays and books were made as well as read.

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110 works about The Carolina Playmakers and the founding of UNC Press are indexed here.

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Playmakers Theatre, Chapel Hill
Playmakers Theatre, Chapel Hill

In the chronology

Events in this storyline, in date order. See these 59 dated events in the chronology →

  1. The University Dramatic Club stages a student show On May 1, 1907, the University Dramatic Club acted a student-written show with a mock sermon and a burlesque faculty meeting. L. W. Parker was the club president.Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 824
  2. Summer School students perform the colonial play Esther Wake In the summer of 1912 the Summer School for Teachers presented Esther Wake, a play by instructor Adolf Vermont about colonial North Carolina, on the steps of Smith Hall. People: Adolph VermontDocumenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. II (1912), p. 738
  3. An outdoor theatre goes up on a Battle Park hillside, the start of the Forest Theatre An open-air theatre on a hillside in Battle Park, its stage newly built, was in use by May 3 and 4, 1917, when the annual Community Spring Festival was held there. Little's architectural history gives 1919 as the year the Forest Theatre, at the western edge of the park, was built. It now carries the name of drama professor Frederick Koch.NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 66 · Also: The News (Chapel Hill), May 10, 1917, p. 1; The News (Chapel Hill), May 3, 1917, p. 1
  4. Frederick Koch's first playwriting class meets with twelve women and Thomas Wolfe Koch's new playwriting course, English 31, opened in the fall of 1918 with thirteen students. Twelve were women students; Thomas Wolfe was the only man, since most male students were then in army uniform. People: Frederick H. Koch, Thomas WolfeArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 20
  5. The Carolina Playmakers are organized Frederick H. Koch organized the Carolina Playmakers at UNC. People: Frederick H. KochUNC A to Z: Carolina Playmakers
  6. The university's extension bureau starts a Bureau of Community Drama under Koch The university's Bureau of Extension added Koch in 1918 to run a community drama division, which lent plays and gave free advice to schools and towns across the state. Requests grew from 40 playbooks in 1919-20 to 2,150 in 1924-25. People: Frederick H. KochArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 66
  7. Frederick H. Koch is hired as professor of dramatic literature Recruited by Edwin Greenlaw from the University of North Dakota, where he had founded the Dakota Playmakers, Frederick Henry Koch signed in late May 1918 at $2,500 a year to teach dramatic literature, a title he chose. He arrived that summer meaning to build a folk drama program in North Carolina. People: Frederick H. Koch, Edwin Greenlaw, Edward Kidder GrahamHoward E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 164
  8. Frederick Koch reads A Christmas Carol in Gerrard Hall Koch brought his annual reading of Dickens's A Christmas Carol to UNC when he arrived in 1918. The Raleigh News and Observer described a 1919 reading in Gerrard Hall, with carols by university singing groups in the two intermissions. His reading in Memorial Hall on December 10, 1943 was his 39th annual reading of the Carol, a series he had begun at the University of North Dakota.Search the index · UNC Libraries For the Record: A Holiday Tradition: Frederick Koch's Reading of a Christmas Carol
  9. The Playmakers turn the new public school auditorium into their first stage With no stage on campus, Koch got the village officials' leave to use the auditorium of a newly finished public school a few blocks away. Volunteers built out the stage and a proscenium, and the room, called the Play-House, served the Playmakers for seven years until Smith Hall opened. People: Frederick H. KochArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 40
  10. Carolina Playmakers present their first bill The first bill included Thomas Wolfe’s The Return of Buck Gavin, with Wolfe in the title role. People: Thomas WolfeNCpedia — Thomas Clayton Wolfe
  11. A thunderstorm halts Esther Wake at Cameron Park during the homecoming University Summer School students staged Adolph Vermont's play Esther Wake, on the early history of Hillsborough and Orange County, at Cameron Park for more than 5,000 people. A heavy thunderstorm stopped it in the second act. People: Albert Coates, N. W. Walker, Adolph VermontDocumenting the American South: A Record of the War Activities in Orange County, North Carolina, 1917-1919, p. 114
  12. The Playmakers give the first Forest Theatre production, The Taming of the Shrew The first play staged in the Forest Theatre was Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, on July 31, 1919. It began a run of outdoor Shakespeare there each summer through the early 1920s.Archibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 112
Show all 59 dated events
  1. The Carolina Playmakers make their first tour The Playmakers set out on May 7, 1921 on their first state tour, taking student folk plays to Greensboro, Charlotte, Durham, Raleigh, Kinston, New Bern and Washington; a one-town trip to Greensboro had come the year before. Koch credits the tours with winning the public support that led the trustees to give the group Smith Hall in 1925. People: Frederick H. KochArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 18 · Also: The Tar Heel, June 7, 1921, p. 3
  2. Koch publishes the first volume of Carolina Folk Plays Henry Holt published Carolina Folk Plays, First Series, five one-act plays written and staged by Koch's Chapel Hill students, with his introduction on folk playmaking. Further series followed in 1924, 1928 and 1931. People: Frederick H. KochArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 115 · Also: Internet Archive catalog: Carolina folk-plays
  3. The University of North Carolina Press is founded On June 12, 1922, university librarian Louis Round Wilson, nine other faculty members and three trustees founded the University of North Carolina Press, the first university press in the South. Its first book, William C. Coker's study of water molds, appeared in 1923, and William T. Couch became director in 1932. People: William T. Couch, Louis Round WilsonUNC Research: Local Ink, Inc. (July 20, 2020)
  4. Trustees set aside Smith Hall and $25,000 for a Playmakers theatre, and the Carnegie Corporation pays to equip it By June 1923 the trustees' executive committee had set aside $25,000 to turn Smith Hall, then the law building, into a theatre for the Playmakers, and the building passed to them in 1925 when the law school moved to its new home; Koch remembered the trustees' unanimous vote as coming in 1925. When the remodeling money left the theatre $13,000 short of what it needed for seats, lights and stage equipment, Koch went to New York, and the Carnegie Corporation sent a check for the balance. People: Frederick H. Koch, Augustus Thomas, Harry Woodburn ChaseArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 42 · Also: The Tar Heel, June 14, 1923, p. 5
  5. The Carolina Playmakers give three plays in Hillsboro's new school auditorium On Monday night, April 16, 1923, the Carolina Playmakers presented three of their plays in the new auditorium of the Hillsboro school.The News (Chapel Hill), April 19, 1923, p. 5
  6. The University of North Carolina Press publishes William C. Coker's book on water molds By mid-August 1923 the University of North Carolina Press had published William C. Coker's The Saprolegniaceae, a scientific study of water molds and the fish they kill. The News called it the first book the Press published and the first of nine volumes in its first catalog, with Coker's study of the Clavarias of the United States and Canada due in September. People: William Chambers CokerThe News (Chapel Hill), August 16, 1923, p. 1
  7. Bayard Wootten photographs the Playmakers' outdoor Taming of the Shrew Bayard Wootten of New Bern came to Chapel Hill to photograph the Carolina Playmakers' outdoor production of The Taming of the Shrew, the start of years of Playmakers work. That month she also urged the University to have aerial photographs made of the growing campus.Search the index · The Chapel Hill Weekly, October 18, 1923, p. 3
  8. Community drama groups form the statewide Carolina Dramatic Association The Carolina Dramatic Association was set up through the university's community drama bureau to link the school and town drama groups springing up across North Carolina. It grew from 32 member groups in 1923-24 to 116 by 1927-28. People: Frederick H. KochArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 69 · Also: The Tar Heel, April 8, 1924, p. 3
  9. George V. Denny becomes the Playmakers' first staff member Denny, who had acted in the first Playmakers bill, became business manager and instructor in play production in 1924. He built the group's first subscription audience and booked its tours before leaving for the professional stage in 1926.Archibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 90
  10. Work is under way turning the old law building into the Playmakers' theatre The News reported that the old law building at the university was undergoing considerable changes and was being entirely reconstructed as a playhouse, the home of the Carolina Playmakers.The News (Chapel Hill), September 18, 1924, p. 5
  11. The Carolina Dramatic Association begins district contests with state finals in Chapel Hill Beginning in the spring of 1925, drama groups from around the state competed in district festivals for a place in finals staged in Chapel Hill, with exhibits and visiting speakers from the national theatre. The association's first festival, a smaller program of school plays and dances in Memorial Hall, had been held in April 1924.Archibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 70 · Also: The Tar Heel, April 8, 1924, p. 3; Chapel Hill Weekly, May 14, 1925, p. 2
  12. An anonymous donor gives $13,000 to seat and equip the Playmakers Theatre A donor who asked not to be named gave $13,000 to fit out the Playmakers Theatre in the old law building with leather-upholstered chairs like those of the Reynolds Memorial Theatre in Winston-Salem, a curtain, lighting, carpets and furniture for the dressing rooms under the stage. Director Frederick H. Koch could not yet say when the theatre would be finished. People: Frederick H. KochThe Chapel Hill Weekly, March 12, 1925, p. 1
  13. Carolina Playmakers give a free performance for freshmen in their new theatre Before the formal opening, the Carolina Playmakers gave a special free performance for freshmen in their remodeled theatre, presenting Paul Green's The Miser and Lucy Cobb's Gaius and Gaius, Jr. With only 345 seats, tickets went to the first freshmen to ask. People: Paul GreenThe Chapel Hill Weekly, October 9, 1925, p. 2
  14. Playmakers Theatre opens The Carolina Playmakers dedicated their theatre in the remodeled Smith Hall, the 1850s building later used as a library and law school, on Monday, November 23, 1925, with talks by Frederick Koch and President Harry W. Chase and three new folk plays. People: Frederick H. KochThe Tar Heel, November 24, 1925: dedication of the Carolina Playmakers Theatre · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, March 5, 1925, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, April 30, 1925, p. 7; Chapel Hill Weekly, October 2, 1925, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, November 27, 1925, p. 3
  15. Chase keeps the University Press from publishing Collier Cobb's book on evolution Geologist Collier Cobb had a manuscript on evolution in hand at the University of North Carolina Press. Chase wrote him that the book was good but that putting it out under the university's imprint would read to enemies as a challenge while the antievolution fight was still on. It was never published by the press. People: Harry Woodburn Chase, Collier CobbHoward E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), pp. 346-352
  16. William T. Couch joins the University of North Carolina Press as assistant director Couch, who had moved to the Chapel Hill area in 1917, began at the press in 1926 as assistant director under Louis Round Wilson and took over as director in 1932. People: Louis Round WilsonIn the index: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill · UNC Libraries: William T. Couch Papers, 1926-1988 finding aid
  17. Paul Green reads his new play In Abraham's Bosom at the Playmakers Theatre Paul Green read his new play, In Abraham's Bosom, to a large audience in the Playmakers Theatre; the Weekly noted it was to be produced in New York within a few months. The play, a tragedy of Black life in eastern North Carolina, opened at the Provincetown Theatre in New York on December 28. People: Paul GreenThe Chapel Hill Weekly, October 29, 1926, p. 3
  18. Paul Green wins the Pulitzer Prize for In Abraham’s Bosom Paul Green received the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for In Abraham’s Bosom. People: Paul GreenThe Pulitzer Prizes · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 6, 1927, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, March 23, 1928, p. 1
  19. Samuel Selden joins the Carolina Playmakers as technical director After five years in New York theater, including the Provincetown Playhouse, Selden came to the University of North Carolina in 1927 as technical director of the Carolina Playmakers.In the index: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · UNC Libraries, Southern Historical Collection: Samuel Selden Papers, 1918-1977
  20. Press governors object to Paul Green's introduction to Congaree Sketches Called before Chase and the press's board, assistant editor William T. Couch heard Royster and the others condemn Green's introduction, which said neither race could leave the ditch until whites gave Blacks a hand. Couch pointed out that some 150 advance copies were already out, and the book went out as printed. Six months later, at Chase's order, unsold copies went to a commercial publisher, which reprinted it without Green's introduction. People: William T. Couch, Paul Green, Harry Woodburn Chase, James Finch RoysterHoward E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), pp. 366-367
  21. Hopi dancers perform in Memorial Hall and adopt Frederick H. Koch into their tribe A troupe of Hopi dancers from Arizona gave their ceremonial dances, including the snake dance, in Memorial Hall under the Playmakers' auspices, and afterward adopted Playmakers director Frederick H. Koch on the Playmakers Theatre stage, naming him Magnificent Fox. People: Frederick H. KochThe Chapel Hill Weekly, January 20, 1928, p. 1
  22. The Playmakers publish the first issue of The Carolina Play-Book The Carolina Playmakers began The Carolina Play-Book, a small quarterly on building a native theatre, in March 1928. It was one of three American theatre journals shown at the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago.Archibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 18
  23. A regional conference on the drama meets in the Playmakers Theatre Drama critics, producers and teachers met at the Playmakers Theatre on April 4 and 5, 1928 for what the Tar Heel called the first Eastern Regional Conference on the Drama, held as its Southern division; the state's own drama festival followed on April 6 and 7. Henderson's book counts it as one of two Chapel Hill drama meetings of more than state importance.Archibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 18 · Also: The Tar Heel, April 5, 1928, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, April 6, 1928, p. 1
  24. The Playmakers stage Loretto Carroll Bailey's mill play Job's Kinfolks, their first original full-length play Job's Kinfolks, a three-act play about mill workers by Loretto Carroll Bailey, ran for three nights in November 1929. It heads the book's list of original full-length plays produced by the Playmakers. People: Loretto Carroll BaileyArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 110 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, November 9, 1929, p. 2; Chapel Hill Weekly, November 8, 1929, p. 4; Chapel Hill Weekly, November 15, 1929, p. 1
  25. Carolina Playmakers corporation limits its theatre to University teaching use Meeting in President Graham's office, the members of the Carolina Playmakers corporation resolved that the Playmakers Theatre be used only for the University's educational program, and voted that radio stations pay stage royalties for broadcast plays. Frederick H. Koch reported 72 performances before about 25,000 people in the past year. People: Frederick H. KochThe Chapel Hill Weekly, October 31, 1930, p. 1
  26. The Playmakers stage Strike Song, a new play about Southern mill workers Loretto Carroll Bailey's Strike Song, a full-length play about Southern mill people written with her husband J. O. Bailey, was produced for three nights in December 1931. Henderson calls it her most ambitious work. People: Loretto Carroll Bailey, J. O. (James Osler) BaileyArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 110 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, December 1, 1931, p. 4; Chapel Hill Weekly, December 11, 1931, p. 1
  27. Trustees name Frederick H. Koch Kenan professor of dramatic literature At their meeting in Raleigh, the University trustees appointed Frederick H. Koch Kenan professor of dramatic literature, in recognition of his fourteen years of teaching playwriting and building the Carolina Playmakers and play production across the state. People: Frederick H. KochThe Chapel Hill Weekly, February 5, 1932, p. 1
  28. Harry Davis organizes the Junior Carolina Playmakers, a children's theatre Harry E. Davis, the Playmakers' technical director, staged his own dramatization of Cinderella with about 35 Chapel Hill children on April 8 and 9, 1932. On April 12 the cast met at the Forest Theatre, organized as the Junior Playmakers with membership in the Carolina Playmakers, and elected Billy Seawell president. The group gave plays for child audiences, including two Davis wrote himself, Cinderella and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the second in the spring of 1933.Archibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 92 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, April 15, 1932, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, February 12, 1932, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, March 24, 1933, p. 1
  29. The Playmakers perform Alcestis in Kenan Stadium with choric dances by Phoebe Barr Euripides' Alcestis was staged in Kenan Stadium in July 1932 with choral dances created by Phoebe Barr, a former Denishawn dancer. After it, every Playmakers outdoor production and operetta included dance.Archibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 93 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, July 15, 1932, p. 6; Chapel Hill Weekly, July 22, 1932, p. 2
  30. The Carolina Playmakers stage a Shaw-Henderson Festival The Carolina Playmakers held a Shaw-Henderson Festival in the Playmakers Theatre honoring Archibald Henderson, George Bernard Shaw's authorized biographer. It opened on February 2, 1933 with Shaw's You Never Can Tell, the play whose 1903 amateur performance had first drawn Henderson to Shaw, repeated on the next two evenings, and closed on Sunday, February 5 with a gathering in Henderson's honor at which Frederick Koch read letters and telegrams of tribute and Percy MacKaye spoke.Search the index · NCpedia: Henderson, Archibald (Rosamond Putzel, 1988) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, February 3, 1933, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, February 10, 1933, p. 1
  31. The Playmakers stage their first operetta, Gilbert and Sullivan's Princess Ida The Playmakers produced their first operetta, Gilbert and Sullivan's Princess Ida, in Memorial Hall with the university's music department on the evenings of February 2 and 3, 1934; the Weekly put the attendance for the two performances at around 1,000. Gilbert and Sullivan came back on their bill most years from the 1936-37 season.Archibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 18 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, February 3, 1934, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, January 26, 1934, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, February 9, 1934, p. 4
  32. The Playmakers begin planning a new Dramatic Art Building Finding Smith Hall far too small, the Playmaker staff began planning a new theatre building in 1936. Architect Waldron Faulkner redrew it around a central stage and a site was picked east of the Bell Tower; by 1944 a foundation was holding $150,000 if the university raised $450,000. People: Samuel SeldenArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 80
  33. The university creates a Department of Dramatic Art under Koch In the spring of 1936 drama courses were split off from the English department into a new Department of Dramatic Art headed by Koch, with a full graduate program. A master's student could submit an original play in place of a research thesis. People: Frederick H. KochArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 18 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 1, 1936, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, August 28, 1936, p. 6
  34. UNC Press publishes Odum's Southern Regions of the United States The University of North Carolina Press in Chapel Hill published Odum's Southern Regions of the United States, a 664-page study of social conditions across the South prepared for the Social Science Research Council's Southern Regional Committee.Search the index · Internet Archive: Southern regions of the United States (Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina press, 1936)
  35. The Roland Holt Theatre Collection is given to the University On Saturday evening, April 4, 1936, at the close of the state drama festival, Frederick H. Koch formally presented the Roland Holt Theatre Collection in the Playmakers Theatre for its donor, Roland Holt's widow Constance D'Arcy Mackay Holt, and President Graham accepted it. The playbills, scrapbooks, letters, 250 photographs and books traced the American stage from 1881 to 1931; Mrs. Holt also gave a silver cup to be awarded each year for the best student playwriting. People: Frederick H. Koch, Frank Porter GrahamThe Chapel Hill Weekly, April 10, 1936, p. 1
  36. Betty Smith comes to Chapel Hill with the Federal Theatre Project The Federal Theater sent Smith to Chapel Hill in 1936 to work with Frederick H. Koch of the Carolina Playmakers. By early May she was one of four Federal Theatre Project playwrights there, with Grace Murphy, Herbert Meadow and Robert Finch, working with Finch on a supplement to the play catalogue of the university extension division. She stayed when the federal project expired, helped Koch compile American Folk Plays and took his classes for him in his absence. People: Frederick H. KochSearch the index · Carolina Story: Betty Smith (Carolina's Literary History) · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 8, 1936, p. 3
  37. Paul Green joins the Playmakers staff as professor of dramatic art Paul Green, one of the early Playmakers, formally joined the staff in 1936 as literary adviser and professor of dramatic art, teaching graduate seminars in playwriting and in ideas in drama. By May 1, 1936 the Chapel Hill Weekly reported that he had arranged to rejoin the faculty as one of Frederick H. Koch's associates in the new department of dramatic art. By 1945, when Henderson's book appeared, he was dividing his time between Chapel Hill and Hollywood. People: Paul GreenArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 94 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 1, 1936, p. 1
  38. Betty Smith edits a collection of plays with Frederick Koch and Robert Finch Smith coedited Plays for Schools and Little Theatres with Koch and Finch in 1937 and wrote a catalog of one-act plays. People: Frederick H. KochSearch the index · NCpedia: Smith, Betty
  39. The Lost Colony premieres Paul Green's pageant-drama The Lost Colony opened at the Waterside Theatre on Roanoke Island on Sunday evening, July 4, 1937, and the Chapel Hill Weekly reported that it scored a hit. The production had Chapel Hill roots: Green was a Chapel Hill playwright, Samuel Selden of the Carolina Playmakers directed, and Frederick Koch's Playmakers were in the company. People: Paul Green, Samuel SeldenThe Chapel Hill Weekly, July 9, 1937, p. 1 (Green Play Makes Hit)
  40. Earl Wynn starts radio production for the Playmakers In the fall of 1939 the Playmakers began radio work under Earl Wynn, and their 'Carolina Playmakers of the Air' grew from local programs to a national network series. A campus radio studio was set up in 1940.Archibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 18 · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, January 19, 1940, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, March 1, 1940, p. 6
  41. UNC Press publishes These Are Our Lives The University of North Carolina Press at Chapel Hill published These Are Our Lives in 1939, life histories gathered by Federal Writers' Project workers in North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia, with a preface by W. T. Couch.Search the index · UNC Libraries: Federal Writers' Project Papers, 1936-1940 finding aid · Also: Chapel Hill Weekly, May 26, 1939, p. 2; Chapel Hill Weekly, December 1, 1939, p. 1
  42. The Carolina Playmakers hold a regional theatre festival for their twenty-first anniversary The Playmakers marked their 21st year with a week-long festival on drama in the South, opening with the Carolina Dramatic Association's state tournament and closing with plays by groups from across the South, talks by Elmer Rice, Brooks Atkinson, Barrett Clark and DuBose Heyward, and a revised version of Paul Green's The Field God. The program printed for April 5 also scheduled talks on Black drama in the South by Zora Neale Hurston and Randolph Edmonds of Dillard University and Edmonds's play Breeders. People: Frederick H. Koch, Paul Green, Archibald Henderson, Samuel SeldenThe Chapel Hill Weekly, April 5, 1940, p. 1
  43. Carolina Playmakers mark their 25th anniversary The Carolina Playmakers celebrated their 25th anniversary with a dinner at the Carolina Inn addressed by Barrett H. Clark of the Dramatists' Guild on the theater as a wartime job, opening the 20th Dramatic Festival and state tournament of the Carolina Dramatic Association. Twenty-one plays were given over three days. People: Frederick H. Koch, R. B. HouseThe Chapel Hill Weekly, March 26, 1943, p. 3
  44. President Frank Porter Graham dedicates the remodeled Forest Theatre President Frank Porter Graham dedicated the rebuilt Forest Theatre at the opening of the Playmakers' A Midsummer Night's Dream in May 1943. The Daily Tar Heel set that opening for Friday, May 14; Henderson's chronology gives May 19. People: Frank Porter GrahamArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 18 · Also: The Daily Tar Heel, May 14, 1943, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, April 30, 1943, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, May 14, 1943, p. 1; Chapel Hill Weekly, May 21, 1943, p. 1
  45. Samuel Selden becomes acting head of Dramatic Art and director of the Playmakers After Koch's death in August 1944, Samuel Selden took over as acting head of the Department of Dramatic Art and director of the Playmakers. People: Samuel Selden, Frederick H. KochArchibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 92
  46. The Playmakers present the 100th program in their experimental series of new plays On December 12, 1944 the Playmakers gave the 100th program in their Experimental Series, the evenings where student plays were staged and the audience then talked back to the author.Archibald Henderson (ed.), Pioneering a People's Theatre (1945), scan p. 18
  47. The Carolina Playmakers stage their first play with an all-Black cast The Playmakers presented Phillip Hayes Dean's Every Night When the Sun Goes Down, their first production with an entirely Black cast, drawn mostly from the Chapel Hill community, in the Graham Memorial lounge theater, with the playwright on campus to work with the cast. Black Ink's reviewer found the play crowded with characters and its ending abrupt.Black Ink (Black Student Movement, UNC), October 1974, p. 5

Places in this history

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 6 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

All places and the county map →

Indexed works

Related works found in catalogs and archives across North Carolina. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

Filter these works by material, period, or place. Counts refer to works, not individual copies. A work may appear under more than one period or place.

Material

Histories 20Photographs & portraits 18Bibliographies 17Periodicals 13Biography 7other types 18

Period

20th century 35World War I era 2World War II era 1

Place

Chapel Hill 47North Carolina (statewide) 35Orange County 24Hillsborough 2Carrboro 1

William Terry Couch and the Politics of Academic Publishing

Shiflett, Orvin Lee · 2015 · McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers

Orvin Lee Shiflett's biography of William Terry Couch, 1901 to 1988, the editor who built up UNC Press at Chapel Hill over four decades in publishing, with a subtitle that calls his career a lightning rod for controversy. Chapters treat culture in the South, a case history in book publishing, objectivity and social science and 'The Sainted Book Burners'. It bears on scholarly publishing and university presses in the twentieth century. McFarland, 2015, 268 pages with illustrations.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NCCU record: University of North Carolina Press -- History -- 20th century.

NCCU UNC Library of Congress

Harry Woodburn Chase

Wilson, Louis Round · 1960

Louis Round Wilson's short biography of Harry Woodburn Chase (1883-1955), president of the University of North Carolina from 1919 to 1930 and afterward president of the University of Illinois and chancellor of New York University. Wilson was the university's longtime librarian and knew Chase's Chapel Hill years at first hand. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1960, 55 pages.

Included because: The record names this subject alongside a heading for the county or its towns.

Reviewed in The Library Quarterly (1960), The Journal of Higher Education (1961).

NC Cardinal Durham CH Historical Society Library of Congress

Frederick Henry Koch

Selden, Samuel ; Sphangos, Mary Tom · 1954 · University of North Carolina Library

Brief biography of Frederick Henry Koch (1877-1944), founder of the Carolina Playmakers at the University of North Carolina, by Samuel Selden and Mary Tom Sphangos, with notes by Jonathan Daniels and others. It reprints Koch's own essay 'Folk playmaking' on pages 59 to 68. Published by the University of North Carolina Library in 1954, viii and 92 pages with illustrations and a portrait.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Carolina Playmakers.

Reviewed in Educational Theatre Journal (1956).

Duke NC Cardinal Durham Library of Congress

Pioneering a people's theatre

Henderson, Archibald · 1945 · University of N.C. Press

Archibald Henderson's short history of the Carolina Playmakers, the University of North Carolina's theater company at Chapel Hill, published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1945, 104 pages. Written while the company was still in its first decades, it gives a contemporary view of how the Playmakers saw their own mission as a people's theatre.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Carolina Playmakers.

NC Cardinal Durham

The Carolina Playmakers

Spearman, Walter · 1970 · University of North Carolina Press

Walter Spearman's account of the Carolina Playmakers, the theater company at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, across its first fifty years, as the subtitle puts it. The company was founded in 1918 under Frederick H. Koch. Published by the University of North Carolina Press in 1970, 178 pages with illustrations and portraits.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Chapel Hill PL record: Carolina Playmakers.

Duke NC Cardinal Chapel Hill PL Durham Library of Congress

Carolina Folk Plays

Koch, Frederick H. · 1922

The second series of one-act plays from the Carolina Playmakers, the UNC theater company Frederick Koch founded in 1918, published in 1922. Includes Thomas Wolfe's 'The Return of Buck Gavin', 'Fixin's' by Paul and Erma Green, and plays by Elizabeth Lay, Lucy Cobb and Frances Gray, with appendices listing Playmakers productions.

Included because: Catalog heading in the NC Cardinal record: Carolina Playmakers.

Duke NC State NC Cardinal Durham NCCU UNC UNCSA CH Historical Society Library of Congress
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A model for folk theatre : the Carolina Playmakers

Moore, Cecelia · 2014 · University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Cecelia Moore on the Carolina Playmakers, the folk drama company Frederick H. Koch built at the University of North Carolina. The text is the talk she gave on April 8, 2014 in Wilson Library for the Gladys Hall Coates university history lecture series, printed by the university. Topics include the Playmakers, Koch and theatrical companies in Chapel Hill.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Carolina Playmakers.

UNC

The University of North Carolina Press dedication of Aubrey Lee Brooks Hall, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 24 November 1980.

1980 · University of North Carolina Press?

Folded program for the University of North Carolina Press dedication of Aubrey Lee Brooks Hall at Chapel Hill on 24 November 1980. One sheet printed as three unnumbered pages, naming the building and the occasion.

Included because: Its title names this subject.

UNC

The Carolina play-book of the Carolina Playmakers and the Carolina Dramatic Association : commemorative issue celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Carolina Dramatic Association

1973

Commemorative issue of the Carolina play-book, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Carolina Dramatic Association in 1973. The play-book was the magazine of the Carolina Playmakers at Chapel Hill and had ceased publication in 1944, so this special edition brought the title back for the occasion. Topics include theater in North Carolina along with both organizations.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Carolina Playmakers.

UNC

50th anniversary, Carolina Playmakers, Playmakers Theater : forum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, March 29, 1969

1969

Transcript of the forum held on March 29, 1969 at Playmakers Theater for the fiftieth anniversary of the Carolina Playmakers, the theatre company of the University of North Carolina. Reported by Elizabeth Overby across 52 leaves. The proceedings cover the company's first half century and the Chapel Hill building it performed in.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Carolina Playmakers.

UNC

Spotlight on playmaking at the University of North Carolina

1963

Short article on the Carolina Playmakers, the university drama group, reprinted from Players magazine for February 1963, pages 140 to 143. Topics include theater at Chapel Hill and the Playmakers themselves, so the piece is a period account of playmaking on the campus at the start of the 1960s.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Carolina Playmakers.

UNC

Toward an American folk drama : twenty-fifth anniversary, the Carolina Playmakers : The Carolina play-book, commemorative issue II

1944 · University of North Carolina

A commemorative number of the Carolina Play-Book marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Carolina Playmakers, published by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1944. The second of the anniversary issues, it gathers material on the company's folk drama work. Its subjects are the Playmakers and theater in Chapel Hill.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Carolina Playmakers.

UNC

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Picture: Playmakers Theatre, Chapel Hill. CC BY-SA 3.0. Photograph by Wgreaves; via Wikimedia Commons

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