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Monday, October 26, 2009
Paul Baker, legendary theater figure in Texas, dies at 98
Paul Baker, the founding artistic director of the Dallas Theater Center and a legendary presence on the Texas theater scene, has died of complications of pneumonia. He was 98.
In the 1950s, Baker invented revolutionary arts training known as “integration of abilities,” which won the attention of theater artists around the world.
“Irritating, arrogant, nuts — and a genius,” is how the late stage and film star Charles Laughton described director and teacher Baker.
The same man affected almost every theater hall built in Texas during the late 20th century by insisting that spectators share the theatrical space with the performers.
“In the long history of theater architecture, no single person has contributed more to its development than Paul Baker,” wrote Dallas architect Arthur Rogers.
A minister’s son, Baker was born in Hereford in 1911. His imaginative responses to the West Texas landscape deeply affected his later teaching on creativity.
Baker attended Trinity University when it was still in Waxahachie and then earned his master’s degree in drama at Yale University. In 1934, Baker accepted a teaching position at Baylor, where he met and married Kitty Cardwell, a math teacher and artist who later translated his theories to children’s art and theater. They had three children.
Two years later, Baker made a crucial voyage to England, Germany, Russia and Japan to observe theater. Insights from this trip helped form a new Baylor theater, Studio One, which placed the audience in swivel chairs embraced by six stages. Over the next decades, Baker would contribute to 10 other Texas theater designs that positioned the dramatic action around the halls, rather than on a 19th century-style picture frame stage.
In 1959, Baker co-founded the Dallas Theater Center, which served as the Baylor drama department’s graduate school. With Baker’s input, Frank Lloyd Wright designed the center, the great architect’s last building. Baker was artistic director for 23 years, promoting many performers and playwrights along the way.
By the early 1980s, Baker was tangling with the Dallas theater group’s board of directors. He wanted to retain the educational approach; they preferred an Equity union theater with well-known stars. In 1982, he resigned, and that spelled the end of the Baker era in Texas. His innovative Baylor theater was torn down, his Trinity theater severely altered.
In Austin during the late 1980s, Baker directed Preston Jones’ “The Oldest Living Graduate” at the Paramount Theatre and his own adaptation “Hamlet ESP” at Hyde Park Theatre. Austin philanthropists Ernest and Sarah Butler, for whom the University of Texas School of Music and Ballet Austin’s Eduction Center are named, were students of Baker’s. His “integration of abilities” inspires them to this day.
Baker was awarded the Texas Medal of Arts in 2007 for his contributions to arts education.
Baker is survived by his wife, Kitty, and three children, Robyn, founder of Dallas Children’s Theater; Retta, a former executive with the American-Statesman; and Sallie, who teaches theater and writing in Denver.
A Dallas memorial will be held in early December at the Children’s Theater’s Rosewood Center for Family Arts. Donations to the Children’s Theater or another charity are requested in lieu of flowers.
Photo provided by Dallas Children’s Theater.
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‘Spring Awakening’ matinee at Bass Concert Hall
The subject itself makes audiences uncomfortable, especially in a musical …
Kellie Tseng and Arthur Marroquin
But “Spring Awakening” does not avert its eye from teen sexuality …
Steve Fall and Katherine Ordonez-Fall
I didn’t witness any departures from Bass Concert Hall during the simulated masturbation, coitus or violence, but some in the audience shifted around uncomfortably …
Robert and Patricia Megerle
Still, others laughed and cheered. The touring production was every bit as spirited as the original, though I couldn’t completely banish from my memory Lea Michele’s Broadway performance (this is before she graduated to “Glee”).
Rosalind Faires and Barbara Chisholm
Patrons glided in and out of the expanded, light-drenched lobbies, the most notable element from the recent major renovation. The concert hall seems to have settled on its core functions after 30 years.
Julie Ortman and Pam Ruder
[For those of you counting, this was Party No. 16 out of 25 on this Big October Weekend. Nine more posts to go.]
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Extravagasm Fantasy Ball at Club Mixx
I don’t know what I expected from the Extravagasm Fantasy Ball …
Joe Rivera and Zezelia Olson
Probably something scary, along erotic lines, as per the invitation, at bare-bones, live-show oriented Club Mixx on East Sixth Street …
Lynn Raridon and Casey Kleam
The ball was more like an indoor version of a street fair with costumes, booths and services …
Droopy and Rebecca
No, not that kind of services, you scamp! Just playful stuff, meant to wander on the dark side, but, in fact, really sweet, plus an ongoing floor show featuring belly, burlesque and aerial dancers …
Arash Saberi and Tyler Groover
All courtesy of Lynn Raridon, who has maintained tastefully erotic Forbidden Fruit off-Sixth Street for 27 of its 28 years. Yeah. It, too, is an Austin institution, folks. Would qualify for one of those City of Austin loans.
Linda Farwell and Carol Kelsey
[For those of you counting, this was Party No. 15 out of 25 on this Big October Weekend. 10 more posts to go.]
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