Ruth Hale (October 14, 1908 – April 20, 2003) was an American

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

and actress.

Biography

Hale was born in Granger, Utah (now West Valley City), and was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She and her husband, James Nathan Hale, moved to California to seek out opportunities in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

. With little success finding film roles, they founded the

Glendale Glendale is the anglicised version of the Gaelic Gleann Dail, which means ''valley of fertile, low-lying arable land''. It may refer to: Places Australia * Glendale, New South Wales ** Stockland Glendale, a shopping centre *Glendale, Queensland, ...

Centre Theater. Ruth Hale wrote many original plays for the venue including ''A Choice Land'' and ''How Near the Angels''. Soon, they and their extended family had opened a number of theaters featuring a center stage (arena theaters or

Theater in the round A theatre in the round, arena theatre or central staging is a space for theatre in which the audience surrounds the stage. Theatre-in-the-round was common in ancient theatre, particularly that of Greece and Rome, but was not widely explored aga ...

) throughout Utah and Arizona. The Hales were also playwrights. They wrote their first play together, ''Handcart Trails,'' to save on the budget of a ward play production in Granger in the 1930s. This play was published in the ''MIA Book of Plays'' in 1940. Their play, ''Melody Jones'', was shown to a national audience by Kurt Television Theatre.

Filmography

Director and producer

*''Oliver Cowdery: Witness to the Book of Mormon'' (1954)- Screenplay writer and co-producer with her husband. *''A Choice Land'' (1954)- producer. *''Is Fast Day A Headache'' (1956)- producer.

Actor

*''Pioneers in Petticoats'' (1969) *'' The Singles Ward'' (2002) *''

The R.M. ''The R.M.'' is a 2003 comedy film about the experiences of a returned missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). "RM" is an LDS initialism for "returned missionary". It was written by Kurt Hale and John E. Mo ...

'' (2003) *'' The Home Teachers'' (2004) *''Hard Times'' (2005)

References

External links

* *
Website of Hale Centre Theatre in Sandy, UtahNathan and Ruth Hale plays, MSS 1278

L. Tom Perry Special Collections The L. Tom Perry Special Collections is the special collections department of Brigham Young University (BYU)'s Harold B. Lee Library in Provo, Utah. Founded in 1957 with 1,000 books and 50 manuscript collections, as of 2016 the Library's special ...

Harold B. Lee Library The Harold B. Lee Library (HBLL) is the main academic library of Brigham Young University (BYU) located in Provo, Utah. The library started as a small collection of books in the president's office in 1876 before moving in 1891. The Heber J. Gran ...

, Brigham Young University 1908 births 2003 deaths Actresses from Utah Writers from Utah Latter Day Saints from Utah 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights American stage actresses People from West Valley City, Utah Place of death missing Latter Day Saints from California 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses {{US-film-actor-1900s-stub