Ainslie pryor biography of abraham lincoln
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Back to: Table of Contents | Chapter 2. A Permanent Home
In addition to its problems in seeing its new building through to completion, the 1939-40 season had been a particularly ansträngande one for the Raleigh Little Theatre. With the ending of the WPAs Federal Theatre project, RLT was forced to depend on its own resources for directors.
The 1939-40 årstid opened with a comedy-mystery, “The gods Warning,” directed by Frances Bailey of the skådespel faculty of Meredith College and presented November 8, 1939, in the auditorium of Broughton High School with leading roles taken by James Thiem, Sam Weimer, Paul Hoover, Margaret Darst, Helen Saunders and Charles Doak Jr. The News and Observer reviewer, Edith Harbour, was kinder than many critics might have been: “The play was a bit too long, the climax coming about 11:30 with a curtain speech to follow, but the action of the play never dragged for an instant.”
In the cast of “Our Town” (1939) were, left to
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Back to: Table of Contents | Chapter 4. The Pryor Years
Richard Snavely, Raleigh Little Theatre Director, 1955-1967
Dick Snavely had a solid grasp of the Raleigh Little Theatre’s resources and needs when he took over as director-manager. He had served for three years as the theatres technical director and had won consistent praise from audiences and critics for his skill in designing and executing sets.
Snavely graduated from Lynchburg College in 1950 with a major in English and drama. He then taught at Warwick High School in Warwick, Virginia, before returning to school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from September 1951 to August 1952. At that time he accepted the post of technical director of the Little Theatre. In the summer of 1953, he was property manager of the outdoor drama “Unto These Hills,” and in summer 1954 he directed the first full season of summer theatre at RLT.
A struggle in “The Rainmaker” (1954-1955)
Snav
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One in this series of monthly specials sponsored by the Ford Motor Company. On March 4th, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln is sworn in for his second term in office, and vice president Andrew Johnson embarrasses himself by arriving inebriated. Lincoln goes up to make his address and conclude the proceedings. Young actor John Wilkes Booth is in attendance in the audience. On the evening of April 14th, Lincoln sits in the Oval Office reading, and Secretary of State William H. Seward sits in bed, recovering from a carriage accident, and Johnson is sleeping. Elsewhere in Washington, Booth prepares himself for that evening, reflecting on the fall of Richmond and the Confederacy. Lincoln has breakfast with his family and tells them about a recurring dream of his involving him somehow witnessing his own death. Mary Todd Lincoln convinces her husband to attend a performance of the play “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theater that night, along with General Gra