Norris Houghton

Charles Norris Houghton (26 December 1909 – 9 October 2001) was an American stage manager, scenic designer, producer, director, theatre manager, academic, author, and public policy advocate. Houghton is known as an American expert in 20th-century Russian Theatre; as a major force in creating the "off-Broadway" movement; as a student and educator of global theater; and as an influential advocate of arts education.

Houghton taught at Princeton, Columbia, and Vassar; his academic career continued at the State University of New York, where he helped create the SUNY Purchase campus and served as founding Dean of Theatre and Film. He wrote many books and articles. His books and papers are preserved for study in several university and college libraries and archives.http://findingaids.princeton.edu/simpleSearch?text1=Norris+Houghton&maxdisplay=50 Abstracts and finding aids for Norris Houghton collections at Princeton libraries and listing of Princeton classes; listing for Norris Houghton as undergraduate and as alumnus. Advance from Broadway by Norris Houghton, 1941: Abstract: Consists of manuscripts for Norris Houghton's book. Advance from Broadway. Location: Manuscripts Division Call Number:C0167 Princeton Playgoers, Inc. Records, 1941–1942: Creator Princeton Playgoers, Inc. . Abstract: Princeton Playgoers, Inc. was a theater production company formed in 1942, during the wartime period when the engagements of Triangle Club were limited. Location: Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library. Princeton University Archives. Call Number:AC315 Theatre Intime Records, 1919–2011: Creator: Princeton University. Theatre Intime. Abstract: "...contains records of the Princeton University student-run theatre...and includes correspondence, clippings, photographs, playbills, Posters, scripts, designs, and promotioonal materials. Location: Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library Call Number ACO22 Miscellaneous Playscripts Collection, 1882–1961: Creator:Princeton University Library Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections. Abstract: includes some playscripts stamped or addressed by theater agencies in Chicago, New York City, and Hollywood...others were used at McCarter Theater or by the Princeton University Players. Location: Manuscript Division Call Number TCO30 McCarter Theatre Records, 1928–2007: Creator: McCarter Theatre Center. Abstract: "The McCarter Theatre was conceived as a permanent home for the Princeton University Triangle Club. McCarter began as a booking theater but moved ...producing its own performances. The ...records document the history of the McCarter Theatre, including administration, performances and productions, and the building..." Location: Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library Princeton University Archives. Call Number: AC131 Princeton University Class Records, 1798–2011: Creator:Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library. Abstract:...consist of a diverse set of materials documenting the history and activities of Princeton University Classes during their time as undergraduates and as alumni...correspondence, newsletters, publications, photographs, and memorabilia, all of which pertain to a particular Princeton University graduating class. Location: Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library. Princeton University Archives. Call Number: AC 130Yale University Library Collections. . Archibald MacLeish Collection. Finding Aid for Phoenix Theatre: Box 19.http://www.clio.cul.columbia.edu. Finding aid Norris Houghton Book collection at Columbia University.Houghton, Norris. Entrances and Exits, Limelight Editions, 1990. 377 pages. An autobiographical memoir of Norris Houghton's lifeVassar College records. Norris Houghton curriculum vitae. The standard curriculum vitae record for faculty. Similar record at other colleges where Norris Houghton held faculty and administrative status.

Early life and introduction to the theatre

Charles Norris Houghton was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, the youngest of three children of Grace Norris and Charles Houghton of Oxford, Ohio. After his parents separated in 1921 he was raised by his devoted, quiet, intellectual mother and her sister, Sarah. He remained close to them throughout their lives and their many influences included a lifetime of resilient Christian faith.

Houghton discovered the stage at age seven, when he was taken by his maternal grandfather to see E.H. Sothern and Julia Marlowe in ''The Taming of the Shrew'', and the following year to a musical brought from London, Chu Chin Chow. Live theater ("the road") was a predominant form of entertainment, but this introduction was more than a shared cultural experience: in theater he discovered his life's plan. By age 14, Houghton offered festivals of short plays in the family home, recruiting and training the Stringscraft Players of nine young marionetteers. This period revealed the role he would pursue throughout his long life: "finding (or writing) the play, peopling it with performers, both the marionettes themselves and the manipulators of their strings; the former must be costumed, the stage decorated and lighted...and the whole put together by an impresario (myself)." By age 16 at the New Gothic style sanctuary of Tabernacle Presbyterian Church he created two Christmas pageant tableaux extravaganzas for 150 performers, including coaching the choir and an organist in unfamiliar excerpts of Monteverdi and Pergolesi.

With a record that included captain of the debate team and senior class president, Houghton was admitted to Princeton, chosen over Harvard because of Princeton's Triangle Club, the oldest collegiate musical-comedy group in the nation. That choice gave him an early introduction to New York City theatre, an easy commute from Princeton. Many Triangle Club members became lifelong friends who helped shape modern theatre. He flourished as stage and costume designer as well as the Triangle's vice-president in this company that included Joshua Logan, Jose Ferrer, James Stewart, Erik Barnouw, Myron McCormick, Alfred Dalrymple, Bretaigne Windust, and Lemuel Ayers. As an undergraduate he balanced the student-run dramatic arts organization with studies in humanistic educational traditions, including highest honors thesis research in 17th Century English Masque productions.

The University Players Guild

At graduation from Princeton in 1931, Houghton had two choices: a fellowship at Princeton Graduate College to pursue English Literature or an invitation to join the University Players Guild.In the summer of 1931 "Guild" was dropped from the name of the University Players at the request of The Theatre Guild in New York City, which was then subsidizing the fledgling Group Theatre. After its 1931 summer season in West Falmouth, the University Players rebranded itself the "University Repertory Company" for its 18-week winter season in Baltimore. In the summer of 1932, it incorporated as "The Theatre Unit, Inc." See generally, Houghton, Norris, ''But Not Forgotten: The Adventure of the University Players''. William Sloan Publishers, New York: 1951. The U.P.G.—started as summer theatre in Cape Cod, aspiring to become a year-round venture—was founded in 1928 by Bretaigne Windust and Charles Leatherbee with involvement of Josh Logan. Houghton chose the U.P.G., which melded his interests in theatrical productions with gifted artists. As with associations during his undergraduate years, he would know his U.P.G. friends as colleagues and notables who would dominate stage and screen for decades. In Houghton's first year with the U.P.G. (the group's fourth summer season) Leatherbee, Logan and Windust espoused "the idea of theatre artists working together over a long period of time subordinating themselves to the whole and finding therein a satisfaction beyond that accruing from individual glory." Performances emerged without long rehearsals; actors learned roles in several days; sets were designed with the sketchiest of preliminary layouts. Each summer provided adventures and emotional upheavals, chronicled in Houghton's account of the U.P.G. Players, But Not Forgotten. This concept of a collective ensemble would persist throughout Houghton's career. More than a concern for long term stability, it reflected his concept of advancing beyond tradition to open channels for new forms of creativity. While the U.P.G. did not succeed as a long term venture, Houghton recalled "we had the memory of a dream that was not yet really proved vain. It had been a glorious prelude to a life in the theatre."Houghton, Norris. 1952. But Not Forgotten. Praeger. Reprinted 1975, 346 pages. Memoir of the University Players.The Oxford Companion to American Theatre 3rd edition. 2004. Oxford University Press. ed. Gerald Bordman and Thomas S. Hischak. History of Princeton University Players: "...a group founded by Bretaigne Windust and Charles Leatherbee in 1928 as the University Players Guild. ...In the last year the company changed its name to the Theatre Unit, Inc., ... Among figures... who ... became famous were Henry Fonda, Joshua Logan, Myron McCormick, Mildred Natwick, Kent Smith, James Stewart, and Margaret Sullavan. Norris Houghton ... wrote the history of the company in ''But Not Forgotten''."

Throughout this period, ranging from full to empty houses, Houghton never regretted rejecting the offer of assistant stage manager job for ''Mourning Becomes Electra'' with New York City's Theatre Guild, the nation's ace theatrical production company. Such coveted opportunities reflected both on Houghton's rapidly growing reputation and the evolution of his unique life plan; similar conflicts in decision making would recur throughout his life. History shows that he was guided by Leatherbee's advice to avoid alliance with the dated, no matter how distinguished. Houghton would persist in becoming a contributor to the future rather than remaining in the safety of the past.

New York to Moscow

Houghton was both an advocate of global theater and dedicated to the live theater of New York City. He moved there to await his chance, livened by his Princeton companions and the U.P.G. weekly beer parties on West 47th Street that brought together the older "alumni" and new young aspirants such as Burgess Meredith, Broderick Crawford, John Beal and Karl Malden. His first break came with an appointment as assistant to Robert Edmond Jones, an acclaimed designer who moved stage design into an integral part of stage productions; scenic design and artistic direction was a lifelong passion of Houghton's. Varied opportunities followed but none included a permanent position, so Houghton accepted a Guggenheim Fellowship for a year of study abroad. Following the suggestion of Henry Allen Moe, Guggenheim Director General, the fellowship transformed Houghton's career: it introduced him to the renowned but little understood Russian theatre, and led to a future that included expository writing appealing to both academic experts and a public audience. The experience and his writings led to his reputation as the preeminent American student and teacher of the Russian theater, illumined by his relationship with the major 20th-century Russian theater figure, Stanislavski. This year of study also ripened to a global perspective that remained a constant throughout his life.Houghton, Norris. 1936. Moscow Rehearsals. Octagon Books. Reprinted 1962, 1975, 291 pages.New York Times. April 1936. Review by Lewis Nichols of Moscow Rehearsals: "The Stage Behind the Soviet Proscenium; Moscow Rehearsals."Houghton, Norris. 1962. Return Engagement, Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 214 pages Memoir of repeated visit to Russian theater.New York Times. April 1962. Review by Howard Taubman of The Theatre in the USSR by Norris Houghton

Moscow rehearsals: the definitive work on Russian theatre

Gaining admission at audience level to the famed Russian theatre, Houghton experienced art as a revered and honored cultural mission in contrast to the glitter of New York theatre. Welcomed by giants of Russian theatre: Konstantin Stanislavski, distinguished actress Olga Leonardovna Knipper-Chekhova (Anton Chekhov's widow), Alexander Tairov, and the revolutionary director Vsevolod Meierhold, Houghton was accepted at rehearsals at Stanislavski's world-famous Moscow Art Theatre—an essential for any informed scholarship about Russian theatre. Houghton noted that observing Stanislavski gave him "an understanding of the difference between Soviet and American attitude toward the arts"—a distinction not complimentary to the American perspective. Houghton's career coincided with the emergence of the postmodern era in the arts, and he was a keen observer of its effect in the theater and a reporter whose writing clarified complex concepts for his readers. Observing Russia's Realistic Theater, with its goal of comingling audience and actor, Houghton noted "...spectators and actors look much the same... there will be Red Army uniforms on the stage and in the house; there will be shawl-shrouded women and rough-bloused men in both places." These experiences enabled Norris Houghton to become the preeminent American authority on Russian theatre and challenged him to look beyond fashionable modes, to understand art through experiential training, and to infuse those values in his productions. Konstantin Stanislavsky presented his book, My Life In Art, to Houghton with the inscription: "To Charles Norris Houghton, my dear comrade in art, with this friendly advice: love the art in yourself and not yourself in art."

In 1935, the first draft of Moscow Rehearsals complete, Houghton returned to New York City. Stage manager of a production of Libel! directed by Otto Preminger in his first American appearance, the play was still running when reviews of Houghton's book on the Russian theatre hit the presses. They were so extraordinary that Houghton said "I was taken aback." Renowned critic John Mason Brown,writing in ''The New York Times,'' said that Mr. Houghton's book "ought to be devoured by every director, manager, actor and critic in our theater."http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2175023. Great Russian_Short_Stories Review of Norris Houghton edited book. The book's success increased led to requests that Houghton travel and report on regional, national, and international theater. He gained better understanding of the diversity of theater outside of New York.http://www.betterworldbooks.com/advance-from-broadway-id-0836956532.aspx Lists Norris Houghton books and reviews.http://www.optimumgambling.com/section/Books/Books/%27Norris%20Houghton%27 Lists Norris Houghton books.Houghton, Norris, ed. 1958. Great Russian Short Stories, Dell Laurel Editions, 383 pages Selection of Russian Short Stories and their literary significance.

Challenges and legacies from Broadway and beyond

In those pre-WWII years, Houghton was engaged as stage manager on various productions, working with former U.P.G. friends, Kent Smith, Jose Ferrer, Myron McCormick, and some established stars such as Ethel Barrymore, Ruth Gordon, Claude Rains. In 1939 he became art director of the St. Louis Municipal Opera. The "Muny," as its devoted audience call it, then held summer performances on an enormous stage in Forest Park before 11,000 people seated on an open hillside. Houghton's success in meeting the challenge of designing scenes for an outdoor stage that included two gigantic oak trees led to three seasons of invitations as art director.http://www.muny.org History of the St. Louis Municipal Opera; for three years Norris Houghton was art directorPittsburgh Post Gazette. May 1940. Local Scrappings. Reports on visit of Norris Houghton, Artistic Director of St. Louis Municipal Opera, to gather material for Rockefeller Foundation Grant on theater in America.Tulane Drama Review. 1959. MIT Press Journals publisher. Article: The Phoenix Has Two Heads by Albert Bermel. Summarizes transition of Phoenix from Theater Inc; describes Phoenix' deficits as exemplary of high costs of theater; notes Norris Houghton's experiences prior to the Phoenix, including Art Director of the St. Louis Municipal Opera.

In 1940, he was approached by Harcourt Brace to write a book on American theatre beyond Broadway. Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, Houghton criss-crossed the U.S.A., visiting 70 stages. Children's theatre, college campus theatre, outdoor history pageants, union workers' theatre, summer stock, middle-American "nightclub" variety theatres, the "road" sites for touring Broadway hits, community theatres often more social than artistic: this montage was critiqued, applauded, reprimanded, and encouraged as evidence of theatrical aspirations more democratic than the commercial Broadway model. Enthused by these experiences, they heightened Houghton's disappointment about the dearth of original plays by young Americans, and the failure of recognized American playwrights to ally themselves with regional theatres. In the resulting book, Advance From Broadway, Houghton asserted "...my declaration of independence from the commercial theatre and a call for decentralization of our professional stage." Houghton resonated to the parting advice of a "living legend" among theatre aficionados, Edward Sheldon, who had advised him: "Seek out the people who put these things in motion. They're what matter." Many fine men and women were out there in America. "It's they I must remember."Houghton, Norris. 1941. Advance from Broadway, Harcourt Brace & Company; reprinted 1971, 416 pages. Description of Norris Houghton's country-wide tour of regional theaters.The Cambridge Guide to American Theatre. 2007 Cambridge University Press. Covers American theatre from its earliest history to the present, with special attention given to contemporary theatre throughout the United States.

Houghton's call for theatrical renaissance and independence from Broadway strictures was overwhelmed temporarily by World War II. The war became a memorable interlude in Houghton's life, after recruitment into a service that would utilize his skills in the Russian language. In early 1945 he became part of the support staff for the Big Three conference in Yalta, a meeting that shaped post-war Europe. He later chronicled his experiences in The New Yorker as "That Was Yalta: Worm's Eye View." His war experiences led into encounters that reflected the charisma of this man, including a meeting with Michael Redgrave in a piano bar in London where Lt. Houghton (j.g.) USNR had been posted as part of a naval communications unit. That encounter blossomed into a lifelong friendship with the Redgraves and a production of Macbeth starring Michael, directed by Houghton, in London and New York in 1947 and 1948.The Entertainment Review. May 1948. Vol 79 Issue 4 p 93. Review of "Macbeth" by Lewis Theophilus. Abstract: The article reviews the theatrical production "Macbeth," directed by Norris Houghton and performed by Michael Redgrave and Flora Robson at the National Theater in New York. Accession #35237200

The decade following World War II marked a period of change in American theatre. He enjoyed a key role in this period, including the associate editorship of a primary resource in the theatrical world, ''Theatre Arts''. In 1945 he became director, producer, and pioneer of what would become known as Off-Broadway. In two triumphal seasons, the ''Theatre Inc'' group he helped found presented Gertrude Lawrence in ''Pygmalion'', London's Old Vic in repertory of four classics featuring, among others, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, and Margaret Leighton; ''The Playboy of the Western World'' with Burgess Meredith, and the "primitive and violent" ''Macbeth'' on which Redgrave and Houghton had collaborated originally in London. Brooks Atkinson reviewed ''Macbeth'': "Under Norris Houghton's direction, ''Macbeth'' gives us, for the first time in my memory, the sweep and excitement of the drama as a whole." He called it "a unified work of the theatre."

A major motivation: the rejection of Billy Budd

These experiences crystallized into action by a series of events following Houghton's receipt of a manuscript dramatizing Herman Melville's '' Billy Budd, Foretopman'' co-authored by his fellow Princeton alumnus Robert Chapman. Successfully finding backing for a production of Louis O. Coxe and Chapman's ''Billy Budd'', with restaging by Josh Logan, the show opened on Broadway on February 10, 1951. Despite laudatory reviews by Brooks Atkinson and the attempt of others to prolong the run, the play closed after three months. Houghton learned that the Pulitzer Prize panel had selected this drama for its annual award, but nothing came of it. This frustrating episode led Houghton to look for theater not subject to Broadway's hit/flop syndrome.Chronicle of the Pulitzer Prizes for Drama: Discussions, Decisions and Documents. 2009. Heinz-Dietrich Fischer, Erika J. Fischer. 2009. Walter de Gruyter 432 pages. Documents the complete history ... of ...awards in the category drama... mainly based on primary sources from the Pulitzer Prize Office... The most important sources are the confidential jury protocols, reproduced ... as facsimiles for the first time... providing detailed information about each year's evaluation process. Includes letter of the rejected recommendation for Pulitzer Prize to Billy Budd.

Television was not a viable alternative. In his brief engagement as producer/director of the CBS Television Workshop, Houghton directed 14 programs. The series ended when CBS failed to find a show sponsor and Houghton found the TV environment "decivilizing," not allowing time for any of the cultural activities that enriched the life he might bring to his productions.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0534274/fullcredits#cast. Productions of CBS TV Workshop during Norris Houghton's directorship.

The phoenix rises

Houghton's commitment to an off-Broadway theater coincided with a confluence of experimental theatres in the 1950s, including the Living Theatre of Julian Beck and Judith Malina, focused on poetic dramas and the Circle in the Square organized by Jose Quintero and Theodore Mann that showcased young talent in revivals of plays not commercially successful on Broadway. In 1953 Houghton and an acquaintance, T. Edward Hambleton, agreed to establish a new theater based on a mutual "off-Broadway" dream. They agreed on principles that emerged from Houghton's two decades of experiences: their theatre would be separate from Times Square; it would be a "permanent" company; they would produce four to five plays for limited engagements; in contrast to the star system, actors would be listed alphabetically; the ticket price would be half of Broadway's top, with tickets available also for one dollar; the management structure would be a traditional limited partnership, but contributors would be asked to fund an entire season rather than each production. They named it the Phoenix, and it operated from 1953 to 1982, managed in its later years by Hambleton as Houghton moved into academia. The Phoenix experiment became a pioneer in the off-Broadway movement; its origins and history are perhaps the accomplishments for which Houghton is best known.http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=24496. Internet Broadway Database archive. Lists Norris Houghton productions from 1937 to 1982; lists Theatre Incorporated productions, T. Edward Hambleton and Norris Houghton, Managing Directors, 1958-1961https://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/#/Phoenix+Theater New York Times listing of openings and reviews of Phoenix Productionshttp://www.lortel.org/lla_archive/ Internet Off-Broadway Database. Lists Phoenix plays 1953–1965Hambleton, T. Edward and Houghton, Norris. 1954. Theatre Arts Magazine. Article "Phoenix on the Wing."Educational Theatre Journal Coverage: 1949-1978 (Vols. 1–30) Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Descriptions of the off-Broadway movement including the Phoenix.

They compromised on a deserted movie house on East 12th Street. Located far from Broadway, larger than they wanted, its design was adequate, if not ideal, for their productions. The Phoenix opened December 1, 1953: the first production was Madam Will You Walk?, the posthumous performance of a new play by deceased Pulitzer Prize winner Sidney Howard, starring Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy. A midnight review on CBS cited "an exciting and new theatrical adventure born tonight amidst laughter and hearty applause of 1200 enthusiastic people who stirred away from their TV sets to see a very witty and provocative play by Sidney Howard. The evening was exciting in another way, however, because it saw a theatre which had been dark brought to light—brought to life again...When the lights are on at the Phoenix—and you are the only ones who can keep them on—there's theatre magic in abundance to be heard and seen and enjoyed."

Good reviews alone could not keep the lights on because opening night was the eve of a Manhattan newspaper strike. Curtain speeches appealing to audiences to spread the news in New York City yielded a sold-out Saturday night. The next production was ''Coriolanus'', starring Robert Ryan and Mildred Natwick, directed by John Houseman, proclaimed by Morehouse of the ''New York World-Telegram and Sun'' as "one of the finest Shakespearean productions I've seen in a lifetime of playgoing." Then came the challenge of an off-beat musical take on the Trojan War, '' The Golden Apple'', written by John LaTouche, music by Jerome Moross. Brooks Atkinson called it "a light, gay, charming production...the only literate new musical of the season..", while others, notably Wolcott Gibbs in ''The New Yorker'' quibbled "Oh I liked her, but not very much." Mixed reviews recurred throughout Phoenix' life, but the New York Drama Critics' Circle named ''The Golden Apple'' the Best New Musical of the 1953/54 season, and it received the cover and inside-spread photo coverage of ''Life Magazine'' and was transferred to Broadway by Roger L. Stevens and Alfred de Liagre.http://www.dramacritics.org/dc pastawards.html. Drama Critics Awards, 1953/1954, the year the Phoenix production won the award.

To conclude the Phoenix opening season, Houghton approached Montgomery Clift, an acquaintance since Houghton designed the set for Clift's 1939 Broadway debut in the Theatre Guild's Dame Nature. The outcome was ''The Seagull'' with Clift as Constantin and Houghton as director. Other major roles were taken by Maureen Stapleton, June Walker, George Voskovec, Sam Jaffe, Will Greer, John Fiedler and Judith Evelyn

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases