Stella Holt

Stella Holt (November 26, 1899 – August 28, 1967) was an American theater producer. She served as managing director of the off-Broadway Greenwich Mews Theater in New York City for 15 years. Holt was known for being one of the first producers in New York to use racially integrated casts.

Stella Holt
Born
Beatrice (Beamsie) Holtzer

November 26, 1899[1][2]
Poland
DiedAugust 28, 1967
New York, New York
Alma materCornell University
OccupationOff-Broadway Producer
Years active1952-1967

Early life and education

Beatrice Holtzer was born in 1899, and later changed her name to Stella Holt. She lost her sight at age 17, but said that she found her blindness "no real handicap."[3]

Holt graduated from Cornell University and initially found employment as a social worker before becoming frustrated by her inability to create meaningful change on behalf of her clients. She shifted her focus to putting on art exhibitions, and said "I found, if any, that my talent lay in organizing."[3]

Career

Greenwich Mews Theater

Holt became managing director of the Greenwich Mews Theater in 1952, and went on to produce 38 plays at the theater. She would select which plays to produce by going through submissions with her life partner Frances Drucker, a former high school teacher with whom she had a 20-year relationship.[4] Her preference was for "plays of serious content, poetic quality".[3] She was skeptical of the over-reliance on spectacle in other productions of the time, and professed her desire to "follow the project of the author in a straightforward way."

Under Holt's leadership, the theater produced plays by Alice Childress, Padraic Colum, René Marqués, and Sean O'Casey. Its production of Monday's Heroes, a play written by Lester Pine, featured a young Zina Bethune in her first acting role.[5] Playwright Tennessee Williams praised her production of his Orpheus Descending, which he preferred over the film adaptation and previous Broadway production.[3] Actors Claudia McNeil, Diana Sands, and Gilbert Price were among those seen on the stage at the Greenwich Mews.[6]

Holt produced the work of many leading Black writers at the Greenwich Mews Theater, including Langston Hughes, Loften Mitchell, and William Branch.[7] Her theater was one of only a few producing shows with integrated casts, which was seen as "experimental" at the time. In 1955 she presented Alice Childress's first full-length play, Trouble In Mind, which is a specific critique of the experiences of Black artists in the white-dominated theater industry.[8]

In 1965, the Cuban-born director Gilberto Zaldívar joined Holt as an associate producer at the Greenwich Mews, becoming co-producer with Drucker after Holt's death.[9]

Collaboration with Langston Hughes

Holt produced Langston Hughes's play Simply Heavenly in 1957, with a budget of $4,200 and a cast of 17 actors, including Mel Stewart and Claudia McNeil.[6] The production transferred to Broadway after 44 performances.[10]

Holt next collaborated with Hughes as a co-producer on Jerico-Jim Crow in 1964.[7]

In 1965 she brought his Prodigal Son to the Greenwich Mews under the direction of Vinnette Carroll.[10] Prodigal Son drew large crowds in New York, and buoyed by this success Holt put together a European tour. The touring production was plagued by financial issues, including late payment of the touring company. Holt was largely blamed for these problems, and according to playwright Isaiah Sheffer, "some of her business practices were, to put it mildly, highly questionable ... I saw enough hanky-panky and cutting of corners to wonder about her ethics."[7]

In the year before her death, she and Langston Hughes had planned to rename her theater The STELLA Holt/Langston Hughes Theater. Langston Hughes died suddenly on May 22, 1967, and Stella passed only 3 months later the same year, on August 28. It was said she died of a broken heart and “followed him to his grave.”

Death

Holt died on August 28, 1967 at age 50 of a heart attack at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City.[3]

Her memorial service was held at her theater. Paul Robeson sang her favorite song, “To Dream The Impossible Dream.”

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References
  1. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014
  2. New York State, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1917-1967
  3. "STELLA HOLT DIES; BLIND PRODUCER; Greenwich Mews Managing Director for 15 Years". Retrieved 2017-10-02.
  4. Times, Special To the New York (1970-03-07). "FRANCES DRUCKER, THEATER PRODUCER". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-10-02.
  5. Hevesi, Dennis (2012-02-17). "Zina Bethune, Actress and Dancer, Dies at 67". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-10-02.
  6. Hill, Errol G.; Hatch, James V. (2003-07-17). A History of African American Theatre. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521624435.
  7. Rampersad, Arnold (2002-01-10). The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume II: 1914-1967, I Dream a World. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 9780195146431.
  8. Smith, Judith E. (2004-09-01). Visions of Belonging: Family Stories, Popular Culture, and Postwar Democracy, 1940-1960. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-50926-8.
  9. Roche, Elisa De la (1995). Teatro Hispano! (in Spanish). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780815319863.
  10. Dietz, Dan (2012-11-21). Off Broadway Musicals, 1910–2007: Casts, Credits, Songs, Critical Reception and Performance Data of More Than 1,800 Shows. McFarland. ISBN 9780786457311.
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