The Jameses New Yorkers
Burton James (1888–1951) and
Florence James (1892–1988 to start the theater department of what was then the Cornish School and is now the
Cornish College of the Arts. In 1928, the Jameses quit Cornish after the school's board of directors objected to a production of
Pirandello's
Six Characters in Search of an Author because of its
brothel scene. They formed the
Seattle Repertory Playhouse (no relation to today's
Seattle Repertory Theatre). The venturesome, multi-ethnic, multiracial, and sometimes explicitly
socialist company performed a wide repertoire, ranging "from popular comedies to works by
Ibsen and
Goethe". In 1933 the theater scored a major success with ''In Abraham's Bosom''. Featuring a largely black cast and a
gospel choir, it was co-produced with Seattle's First
African Methodist Episcopal Church. The Jameses applied separately to start a unit with Negro actors, to be housed at their theater with them as producers and directors. Federal Theatre Project national director
Hallie Flanagan considered the company the best "Negro unit" in the program, and historian Rena Fraden says that they put on "some of the most experimental of productions of any Negro unit." There is evidence to suggest the Black troupe of the Seattle Negro Unit changed the ending so that the Black stevedores fought off the white lynch mob alone, without the help of fellow white unionists. The state administrator of the
Works Progress Administration (WPA), which oversaw the FTP, shut down a 1937 production of
Lysistrata after one night, although he had not personally seen it, because his wife and secretary complained about its risque nature. The Negro Repertory Company was performing it at the larger
Moore Theatre. The Jameses resigned in 1937 after a public furor over their production of
Power, about public utilities, but continued to operate their theater. The NRC was combined with another FTP unit and survived for as long as funding did.
Norm Bobrow, promoted weekly Sunday concerts at the Playhouse Theatre for two years starting in May 1946.
The University era The university renamed the building the University of Washington Playhouse Theatre and made regular use of it for their growing drama department. In 1967, Greg Falls (later the founder of Seattle's
ACT Theatre), influenced by the ideas of such
avant garde directors as
Peter Brook, converted the building from a
proscenium to a
thrust stage. From 2007 to 2009, the university carried out a major reconstruction of the building, working with
LMN Architects of Seattle: it raised the roof an extra story, improved sight lines and lighting capabilities, and brought the building up to present-day
seismic standards. The building was renamed the Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse, in honor of a foundation that donated
US$2.4 million to the project. Floyd Jones, who is still alive, sees the name as a tribute to his late wife, who was "devoted to the arts, social justice, and
Democratic politics… always thrilled when they took on plays… like
All Powers Necessary and Convenient", which was about the Canwell hearings of the 1940s. ==See also==