Jane Addams was convinced of the power of theater to communicate essential truths and to transcend barriers of ethnicity, religion, or age. Dismayed by the overdramatized and unrealistic dramatic fare available to the Hull-House neighborhood, she encouraged theatrical productions at the settlement house that emphasized both artistic excellence and social utility.

In addition to performances by many Hull-House ethnic organizations and clubs, the settlement sponsored two main theatrical efforts. Laura Dainty Pelham led the Hull-House Players in the performance of socially conscious and thematically innovative productions, while the theater- centered social clubs led by Edith de Nancrede spotlighted the power of the theater to release creativity and forge collective bonds between individuals. Led by talented women, the Hull-House theater program gave neighborhood girls and women the opportunity for self-expression through public performance, set design, and script writing.

As actresses, nineteenth-century women risked social censure as loose and morally lax. Theater management and direction were largely closed to women who were perceived as being incapable of managing finances or making business decisions. Women fought to be included in all aspects of the theater and brought their own sensibilities and agenda to their efforts. They led in the formation of alternative theatrical venues such as children's and neighborhood theater and in efforts to make theater relate to the real lives of ordinary people.

The Hull-House Opera Workshop presented productions of Gounod's Faust and Mozart's Don Giovanni in 1948 and Smetana's The Bartered Bride in 1950. This photo documents the production of The Bartered Bride.

Photograph, University at Illinois at Chicago, The University Library, Jane Addams Memorial Collection, JAMC Neg. 531

Laura Dainty Pelham (1849-1924)
Actress and successful theater businesswoman, Laura Dainty Pelham was appointed director of the Hull-House theater program in 1900. Pelham was drawn to Hull-House because of the settlement social programs as well as the opportunity to direct and innovate. At Hull-House, she restructured the Hull-House Dramatic Association into an ensemble of fourteen called the Hull-House Players. Pelham used her experience and high standards to shape them into a nationally and internationally recognized ensemble company..

Photograph, University at Illinois at Chicago, The University Library, Jane Addams Memorial Collection, JAMC Neg. 531

Ethnic productions at Hull-House included Russian, Yiddish, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Italian, Bohemian and Latvian folk theater. Jane Addams noted, " The immigrants in the neighborhood of Hull-House have utilized our little stage in an endeavor to reproduce the past of their own nations through those immortal dramas which have escaped from the restraining bond of one country into the land of the "universal." In this photograph of "A Greek Play," note the Hull-House Theater motto above the stage.

Photograph, University at Illinois at Chicago, The University Library, Jane Addams Memorial Collection, JAMC Neg. 1119.

Both Hull-House groups and outside groups performed at the settlement house. This hand-made poster advertises a performance at Hull-House.

Poster, Jane Addams Hull-House Musuem