Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society
Encyclopedia
The Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society of Georgetown University
is the oldest continuously running collegiate theatre troupe in the United States. Today, the Society is one of five theatre groups on the Georgetown campus and is entirely student-run. In its 160th Season, Mask and Bauble continues to provide an opportunity for students to develop artistic, technical, and administrative skills, while performing high-quality theatre for the enjoyment of the Georgetown University community and the surrounding District of Columbia
.
was among the non-Georgetown students involved in the early performances. World War I
priorities caused a suspension of group activities, and after the war the group was revived with the new name of Mask and Bauble. The society was the first of its kind to use female actresses in 1922, as female roles were previously filled by male actors. It formally accepted female members in 1934.
During this time the Society had a close relationship with the Roosevelt White House, boasting Eleanor Roosevelt
as a society patron. The Society continued to serve the Presidency through the Eisenhower
and Kennedy
administrations, when student technicians assisted with the technical aspects of some of the nation's first televised presidential press conferences. This intimate relationship with the White House was nurtured by the society's faculty adviser, Donn B. Murphy
, who also served as theatrical adviser to Kennedy and Johnson
. Murphy served until 1976, although he remains involved with Georgetown theatre to the modern day. The Society's annual playwright contest and one acts festival is conducted in his honor and bears his name.
Club membership hovers around 90-100 students, making it the largest theatre group on Georgetown's campus.
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
is the oldest continuously running collegiate theatre troupe in the United States. Today, the Society is one of five theatre groups on the Georgetown campus and is entirely student-run. In its 160th Season, Mask and Bauble continues to provide an opportunity for students to develop artistic, technical, and administrative skills, while performing high-quality theatre for the enjoyment of the Georgetown University community and the surrounding District of Columbia
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
.
History
Mask and Bauble was founded in 1852 as The Dramatic Association of Georgetown College, staging its first show on February 27, 1853. Washington area actor John Wilkes BoothJohn Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor...
was among the non-Georgetown students involved in the early performances. World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
priorities caused a suspension of group activities, and after the war the group was revived with the new name of Mask and Bauble. The society was the first of its kind to use female actresses in 1922, as female roles were previously filled by male actors. It formally accepted female members in 1934.
During this time the Society had a close relationship with the Roosevelt White House, boasting Eleanor Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt was the First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945. She supported the New Deal policies of her husband, distant cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and became an advocate for civil rights. After her husband's death in 1945, Roosevelt continued to be an international...
as a society patron. The Society continued to serve the Presidency through the Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
and Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
administrations, when student technicians assisted with the technical aspects of some of the nation's first televised presidential press conferences. This intimate relationship with the White House was nurtured by the society's faculty adviser, Donn B. Murphy
Donn B. Murphy
Donn B. Murphy taught theatre and speech courses at Georgetown University from 1954 to 2000. At the invitation of Jacqueline Kennedy and Letitia Baldrige, he became a theatrical advisor to the John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson Administrations for White House dramatic and music presentations in...
, who also served as theatrical adviser to Kennedy and Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
. Murphy served until 1976, although he remains involved with Georgetown theatre to the modern day. The Society's annual playwright contest and one acts festival is conducted in his honor and bears his name.
Today
Mask and Bauble continues to perform in Poulton Hall's Stage Three, a block from Georgetown's main gates on the corner of 37th and P Street NW. This theater space was seized from the university by Mask and Bauble students over spring break in 1975. These students, unhappy with university commitment to theater, squatted in what was previously Room 57, and built a makeshift theater in the space they named Stage Two. While the university forced this to be taken down, it built Mask and Bauble a small theater in Poulton Hall, which became Stage Three. Stage One was then converted into the scene and costume shop. While the club's alumni were very active in raising money to build Georgetown's new Davis Performing Arts Center, the society and other student groups have been restricted from using the Center's main theatre due to their insistence on maintaining student, rather than faculty, direction.In 2009, Mask & Bauble co-produced Caroline, or Change with the Black Theater Ensemble and the Department of Performing Arts on the main stage of the Davis center, making it the first student directed play on the Gonda Stage.Club membership hovers around 90-100 students, making it the largest theatre group on Georgetown's campus.
Alumni
- John Wilkes BoothJohn Wilkes BoothJohn Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor...
: Washingtonian actor and assassin of President Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and... - John GuareJohn GuareJohn Guare is an American playwright. He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, and Landscape of the Body...
: American playwright, best known for The House of Blue LeavesThe House of Blue LeavesThe House of Blue Leaves is a play by American playwright John Guare, first staged in 1966 by Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, Connecticut....
and Six Degrees of SeparationSix degrees of separationSix degrees of separation refers to the idea that everyone is on average approximately six steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person on Earth, so that a chain of, "a friend of a friend" statements can be made, on average, to connect any two people in six steps or fewer... - Eileen BrennanEileen BrennanEileen Brennan is an American actress of film, television, and theater. Brennan is best known for her role as Doreen Lewis in Private Benjamin for which she received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She reprised the role in the TV adaption and won a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy...
: American film, television, and stage actress - John BarrymoreJohn BarrymoreJohn Sidney Blyth , better known as John Barrymore, was an acclaimed American actor. He first gained fame as a handsome stage actor in light comedy, then high drama and culminating in groundbreaking portrayals in Shakespearean plays Hamlet and Richard III...
: American stage and film actor - Jack HofsissJack HofsissJack Hofsiss is an American theatre, film and television director. He received a Tony Award for his direction of The Elephant Man on Broadway, the youngest director to have ever received it at the time...
: Director, best known for The Elephant ManThe Elephant Man (play)The Elephant Man is a 1977 play by Bernard Pomerance. The production's Broadway debut in 1979 was produced by Richmond Crinkley and Nelle Nugent, and directed by Jack Hofsiss... - Antonin ScaliaAntonin ScaliaAntonin Gregory Scalia is an American jurist who serves as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. As the longest-serving justice on the Court, Scalia is the Senior Associate Justice...
: Supreme Court Justice - (Bradley Cooper): American film and television actor