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A Century of Drama at Yale
October 2000

The nation’s political stage will be groaning with Yale alumni (George W. Bush ’68, Joseph Lieberman ’64, Dick Cheney ’63) next month, but the attention of the university’s professional theater people may well be elsewhere. On November 13, the alumni of the Yale Dramatic Association and the School of Drama will be gathering for a bicoastal blow-out celebrating two major birthdays, the Dramat’s 100th, and the School’s 75th. The event involves dinners and performances in New York and Los Angeles to be linked by satellite.

Revizor 1908		Critic and The Fire Eater 1909		Robin of Sherwood 1912
Troilus and Cressida 1916		Yellow Jack 1935		The Frogs of Aristophanes 1941

And if you think this is a bit showy, consider the people being celebrated. Among the Dramat’s alumni over the past century are Monty Woolley ’11, Cole Porter ’13, Thornton Wilder ’20, Sam Waterston ’62, and Jodie Foster ’85. They are joined by such Drama School stand-outs as John Guare ’63, Meryl Streep ’66, and Wendy Wasserstein ’76.

But before they were stars, their amateur productions were announced in campus posters that represent a history of the century’s graphic, as well as dramatic, art. The following images were assembled with the help of Joseph Reed ’54, ’61PhD, whose exhibition on the Dramat’s history opens in Sterling Library next month, and the Drama School’s Teri Tuma.

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