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George Pierce Baker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Baker c. 1886

George Pierce Baker (April 4, 1866 – January 6, 1935)[1] was a professor of English at Harvard and Yale and author of Dramatic Technique, a codification of the principles of drama.

Biography

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Baker graduated in the Harvard College class of 1887, served as Editor-in-Chief of The Harvard Monthly, and taught in the English Department at Harvard from 1888 until 1924. He started his "47 workshop" class in playwriting in 1905. He was instrumental in creating the Harvard Theatre Collection at Harvard University Library. In 1908 he began the Harvard Dramatic Club, acting as its sponsor, and in 1912 he founded Workshop 47 to provide a forum for the performance of plays developed within his English class.[2] He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1914.[3] Unable to persuade Harvard to offer a degree in playwriting, he moved to Yale University in 1925, where he helped found the Yale School of Drama. He remained there until his retirement in 1933.[4]

Baker was Hyde lecturer and taught a seminar on Shakespeare and English drama at the Sorbonne University (Paris) in 1907-08.[5] He lectured at other French universities and gave several series of lectures at Lowell Institute. He has edited books on drama and written several himself, including "Shakespeare's Development as a Dramatist" (1907).[6]

Harvard's Workshop 47

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In 1922, he was interviewed and given a cover page news story with photograph titled "What's the Matter With My Play?" Dr. Baker is quoted as beginning his lectures with "No one, no system, can create a dramatist."

When referring to Workshop 47 "In 1913 the Workshop began. From the beginning it has depended almost wholly on itself, doing all the work except for the making of scenery flats and some of the bulky properties. It occupies the lower floor of Massachusetts Hall, one of the oldest of the Harvard buildings. Students are admitted in English 47 and 47A, the two courses in playwriting. These appear also in the curriculum of Radcliffe, the woman's college. To get from the first group (47) to the second group (47A) is by competition; students in the former submitting June 1 of each year manuscripts of one act plays. Prof. Baker passes on these and forms the next year's band of aspiring playwrights out of the winning men. And these students write the plays that are acted in the theater of Massachusetts Hall in the next term, put on the stage by the director or his aids and criticized by the classes."[7]

Among those he taught in his playwriting Workshop 47 class were Rachel Barton Butler,[8] George Abbott, Philip Barry, S.N. Behrman, Henry Fisk Carlton,[9] Hallie Flanagan, Kenneth Sawyer Goodman, Dorothy Heyward,[10] Ben Hecht, Sidney Howard, Samuel Hume, Lute Johnson, Edward Massey, Stanley McCandless, Eugene O'Neill,[11] Hubert Osborne, Eugene Pillot,[12] Channing Pollock (writer),[13] Kenneth Raisbeck, Florence Ryerson, Edward Sheldon, Hong Shen, Josephine Van De Grift,[14] Maurine Dallas Watkins[15], Thomas Wolfe and C. Antoinette Wood.[16][4] His Dramatic Technique (1919) offered a codification in English of the principles of the well-made play.[17][18]

George Pierce Baker was the father of George P. Baker who was dean of Harvard Business School.[19]

References

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  1. ^ American National Biography
  2. ^ "What's The Matter With My Play: Harvard Workshop Claims To Be Able To Shorten The Dramatist's Difficult Road". Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York). Newspapers.com. Aug 3, 1922.
  3. ^ "Book of Members, 1780-2010: Chapter B" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  4. ^ a b Banham, Martin, ed. (1998). "Baker, George Pierce". The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 72–73. ISBN 0-521-43437-8.
  5. ^ Archival source: CARAN, Paris. AJ/16-4750 (1907) p. 67
  6. ^ "What's The Matter With My Play: Harvard Workshop Claims To Be Able To Shorten The Dramatist's Difficult Road". Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York). Newspapers.com. Aug 3, 1922.
  7. ^ Case, Humphrey Chance (Sep 3, 1922). "What's the Matter With My Play?". The Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Florida). Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ James Fisher, Felicia Hardison Londré, Historical Dictionary of American Theater: Modernism (Rowman & Littlefield 2017): 113-114. ISBN 9781538107867
  9. ^ "Harvard Prize Play: Henry Fisk Carlton". The Morning Union (Springfield, Massachusetts). Newspapers.com. Jan 28, 1926.
  10. ^ ""Nancy Ann" Tonight". The Morning Union (Springfield, Massachusetts). Newspapers.com. Mar 10, 1924.
  11. ^ O'Neill, Eugene (Jan 27, 1929). "Modern Drama: Dr. George Pierce Baker". The Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati, Ohio). Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Eugene Pillot's "Hunger"". Santa Rosa Republican (Santa Rosa, California). Newspapers.com. Apr 28, 1923.
  13. ^ "Gossip of Plays and Players: A Plea for Vitality". Brooklyn Eagle (Brooklyn, New York). Newspapers.com. Feb 25, 1923.
  14. ^ "Talented Akron Newspaper Woman To Realize Ambition in New York". The Akron Beacon Journal. Newspapers.com. Sep 22, 1922.
  15. ^ "Miss Maurine Watkins, a Playwright". The Lexington Herald (Lexington, Kentucky). Newspapers.com. Oct 31, 1926.
  16. ^ "Conservatory Program". The Miami News (Miami, Florida). Newspapers.com. Feb 15, 1923.
  17. ^ Styan, J L. Modern Drama in Theory and Practice I.
  18. ^ Innes, Christopher, ed. (2000). A Sourcebook on Naturalist Theatre. London and New York: Routledge. p. 7. ISBN 0-415-15229-1.
  19. ^ "Harvard Business School bio of George P. Baker". Archived from the original on 2018-07-03. Retrieved 2012-09-25.

Further reading

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  • Bordelon, Suzanne. "A Reassessment of George Pierce Baker's" The Principles of Argumentation": Minimizing the Use of Formal Logic in Favor of Practical Approaches." College Composition and Communication 57.4 (2006): 763-788 online.
  • Hinkel, Cecil Ellsworth. "An Analysis and evaluation of the 47 workshop of George Pierce Baker" ( Diss. The Ohio State University, 1959) online.
  • Kempf, Christopher. "The Play’sa Thing: The 47 Workshop and the “Crafting” of Creative Writing." American Literary History 32.2 (2020): 243-272.
  • Kinne, Wisner Payne. George Pierce Baker and the American Theatre (Harvard University Press, 2013).
  • Reilly, Kara. "George Pierce Baker: A century of dramaturgs teaching playwriting." Contemporary Theatre Review 23.2 (2013): 107-113.
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