The Theatre Journal Auto Archive: Marvin Carlson

Abstract

My hometown of Wichita, Kansas, was hardly a hotbed of theatrical activity, or indeed of much of any activity except farming and the building of airplanes in the 1940s and early 1950s when I was growing up there. Still, there was a modest amount of theatre at the local colleges and occasionally the road show of a recent Broadway production. It was such a touring show that gave me my first revelation of what theatre might be, the touring production of John Brown's Body, directed by Charles Laughton and starring Judith Anderson, Raymond Massey, and Tyrone Power, which I saw in Wichita in 1953, at the age of eighteen, and which left an indelible impression upon me. It was a staged reading, so scenic spectacle played little part in the effect, but the thrill of seeing those great actors at the top of their form was unlike anything I had ever experienced. I cannot say that from that time onward I was determined to have a career in theatre, but it is certainly true that from that time onward I knew that attending theatre was something I wanted to do as much of as possible, and it has been my passion, one might say my addiction ever since.