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The Secrets of the Playmakers Theater
by Charly Mann
One of the oldest buildings on the UNC campus has for more than a hundred years housed the Playmakers Theater. The building is actually named Smith Hall in honor of former North Carolina Governor Benjamin Smith. Smith was a one-term governor from 1810 to 1811 who gave 20,000 acres of land he owned to the University as an endowment. Smith came from of the state's wealthiest families, yet in his final decades he got in the habit of living beyond his means. He died in poverty in 1826.
Smith Hall, University of North Carolina - now THe Playmaker's Theater, about 1852 when it was still a ballroom
Smith Hall (The Playmakers Theater) and Old East are the only buildings in Chapel Hill that are designated National Historic Landmarks. The building was originally built in 1849 as a ballroom for dances and served that purpose until 1854 when it was converted into the university library. When General Sherman's army occupied Chapel Hill in 1865 at the end of the Civil War, the Michigan Calvary used the library's book stacks as stalls for their horses. In 1890 the building was converted into a bathhouse that contained six large marble tubs. In 1905 the building was turned into the law school.
The most beautiful building on the UNC campus, the home of the Playmakers Theater, Chapel, NC.
The great drama professor, Frederick Koch, convinced the University in 1925 to turn the building into a theater. The Carnegie Foundation paid to renovate the structure into a theater. It soon after became popularly known as The Playmakers Theater for Koch's repertory group that performed there. It has been the official home of that group ever since.
The building's most distinguishing features are the columns and cornice, which are modeled on corn, tobacco, and wheat stalks. A very talented Tarheel prison inmate made these cornices. The building was designed by architect Alexander Davis to resemble a classic Greek temple.
Interior of the Playmakers Theater, University of North Carolina 1936
Some of the notable writers and actors who have been part of the Playmakers include Billy Crudup, Paul Green, Andy Griffith, and Betty Smith.
Comments:
Margaret Malpass
8:56 PM Thu 8/26/2010
The paint color of the theater shown here is much more intense than its present appearance. I have been told that there is a project on campus to restore the older buildings to their original state. Is the current paint as it will remain or are there plans to change it. Which color is correct?
This information would be valuable to me. Thanks, anyone.
vwlinney
4:38 AM Mon 1/18/2010
A BFA in Acting friend pointed out that the tops of the Corinthian columns had, instead of acanthus leaves, corn and ham hocks, apropos of acting.
Bill Brady
3:10 PM Fri 5/15/2009
Too bad UNC did not continue using this style for other buildings.
Donald Thompson
1:31 PM Thu 5/14/2009
What a pleasant site to relive and learn new things about my favorite place on earth.
Donna Stanley
4:20 PM Wed 5/13/2009
I have enjoyed at least thirty great performances in this theater since coming to Chapel Hill in 1961.
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Chapel Hill is located on a hill whose only distinguishing feature in the 18th century was a small chapel on top called New Hope Chapel. This church was built in 1752 and is currently the location of The Carolina Inn. The town was founded in 1819, and chartered in 1851.
What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls. or the crisp October nights. No, our love for this place is based upon the fact that it is as it was meant to be, The University of the People.
-- Charles Kuralt
Dark Side of the Hill -- Pink Floyd, the creators of the most popular album in history, Dark Side of the Moon, took the second half of their name from Floyd Council, a Chapel Hill native, and great blues singer and guitarist. He once belonged to a group called "The Chapel Hillbillies".
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Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
There would probably be no Chapel Hill if the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees in 1793 had not chosen land across from New Hope Chapel for the location of the university. By 1800 there were about 100 people living in thirty houses surrounding the campus.
The University North Carolina's first student was Hinton James, who enrolled in February, 1795. There is now a dormitory on the campus named in his honor.
The University of North Carolina was closed from 1870 to 1875 because of lack of state funding.
William Ackland left his art collection and $1.25 million to Duke University in 1940 on the condition that he would be buried in the art museum that the University was to build with his bequest. Duke rejected this condition even though members of the Duke Family are buried in Duke Chapel. What followed was a long and acrimonious legal battle between Ackland relatives who now wanted the inheritance, Rollins College, and the University of North Carolina, each attempting to receive the funds. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and in 1949 UNC was awarded the money for the museum. Ackland is buried near the museum's entrance. When the museum first opened, in the early sixties, there were rumors that his remains were leaking out of the mausoleum.
The official name of the Arboretum on the University of North Carolina campus is the Coker Arboretum. It is named after Dr. William Cocker, the University's first botany professor. It occupies a little more than five acres. It was founded in 1903.
Chapel Hill's main street has always been called Franklin Street. It was named after Benjamin Franklin in the early 1790s.
Chapel Hill High School and Chapel Hill Junior High were on Franklin Street in the same location as University Square until the mid 1960s.
The Colonial Drug Store at 450 West Franklin Street was owned and operated by John Carswell. It was famous for a fresh-squeezed carbonated orange beverage called a "Big O". In the early 1970s, I managed the Record and Tape Center next door, and must have had over 100 of those drinks. The Colonial Drug Store closed in 1996.
Sutton's Drugstore, which opened in 1923, has one of the last soda fountains in the South. It is one of the few businesses remaining on Franklin Street that was in operation when I was growing up in the 1950s.
Future President Gerald Ford lived in Chapel Hill twice. First when he was 24, in 1938, he took a law couse in summer school at UNC. He lived in the Carr Building, which was a law school dormitory. At the same time, Richard Nixon, the man he served under as Vice President, was attending law school at Duke. In 1942, Ford returned to Chapel Hill to attend the U.S. Navy's Pre-Flight School training program. He lived in a rental house on Hidden Hills Drive.
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I was at the rededication of the building with former Playmakers when it was held in I believe the 1980's. Eugenia Rawls gave a moving performance and tribute to Prof Koch. Emily Selden, Sam Seldon's wife who suceeded Fred Koch in the theatre department was there, as were many others including the Fitzsimmons, Earl and Rhoda Wynn, Mark Sumner, and Paul Green's family. Eugenia Rawls husband also attended. He founded the Denver Center For The Arts.
A portrait of Fred Koch hung when one entered the theatre building. On another trip when I saw the portrait - the name tag had fallen off, and was laying on the floor. I picked it up, and went to the administration who assured me it would be fixed, and placed back on the portrait which it was. Today the portrait is in the office of the Chair of the Theatre Department when I last checked. I think it should be returned to the Playmaker Theatre. The Law School wanted the building back on one of my trips to Chapel Hill.
Most know that the new Theatre built was to be named after Prof Koch. Even Paul Green knew who they ended up naming the Theatre after. Paul said to me it really should be named after Koch, but Green was still alive and that is what they decided. An attempt and plan to build a new theatre named after Fred Koch had happen years earlier. It was never built.
I have always loved the columns of the Playmakers Theatre. It was great to read about them. If any one wants to know more about Prof Koch - do your self a favor, and read the plaque at the Forrest Theatre. His ashes are on that stage, as are many others who cared about the Playmakers and their legacy to the University, North Carolina, America, and the World.
Gail Cohen
Theatre Historian and Archivist