The summer place to be
Dixon Ryan Fox, the College's theater-loving president, was the catalyst. As a Columbia undergraduate, Fox had “trod the boards,” and as a Union faculty member, he collaborated on historical films and wrote and acted in a pageant based on eighteenth-century politics. In 1935, he invited movie star Charles Coburn and his actress wife, Ivah Wills, to establish a summer theater festival modeled on England's venerable Malvern and Stratford festivals. The Coburns agreed and established a corporation to run both the festival and an acting institute, which used the College's grounds and facilities but remained independent financially and operationally.
The first season was moderately successful. Then the Carnegie Corporation awarded a $12,000, three-year grant, and the New York State Regents granted a charter. Thus fortified, the festival began to evolve. By 1938, the bill offered seven plays, all staged outdoors near the current Achilles Rink-a Shakespeare production, some modern works, and standards such as Molière, Sheridan, and Shaw. Many major stars, such as Walter Hampden, Cornelia Otis Skinner, and Beulah Bondi, performed here. Reviews and articles appeared nationwide in newspapers and magazines, drama editors and critics from the Washington Post and New York Herald Tribune wrote about the productions, and the festival, while not a money-maker, began gaining prestige.
The Coburns' institute offered courses in theater production, scenery design, set construction, dance, fencing, make-up, and publicity. Students completed two eight-week summers, and the top four graduates received offers from professional troupes and often screen tests. It was a rigorous schedule-students attended class in the mornings, rehearsed afternoons in Jackson's Garden, and participated in that evening's production.
By 1940, the war in Europe had its impact. Attendance waned, and many local backers could no longer afford their support. Then the festival was “postponed” when the government called on the College
to participate in accelerated summer courses to train physicists, engineers, and chemists for the war effort. The postponement was actually the festival's grand finale.