Stella Holt

Holt became managing director of the Greenwich Mews Theater in 1952. She went on to produce 38 plays over her 15 years at the 200-seat theater, located in the Village Presbyterian Church.[5] She would select which plays to produce by going through submissions with her partner Frances Drucker, a former high school teacher with whom she had a 20-year relationship.[6] Her preference was for "plays of serious content, poetic quality".[3]

Under Holt's leadership, the Greenwich Mews Theater produced plays by Padraic Colum, René Marqués, Sean O'Casey, and Jules Romains.[7] Playwright Tennessee Williams praised Holt's production of his Orpheus Descending, which he preferred over both the Broadway production and the film adaptation.[3]

Director Adrian Hall got his first job in New York City theater as a janitor at the Greenwich Mews. Holt quickly began encouraging his directorial work, including a production of Sean O'Casey's Red Roses for Me. Hall traveled with Holt to Hawaii in 1962, with the help of a Ford Foundation grant, to study the possibility of opening a regional theater there.[8]

The Greenwich Mews production of Monday's Heroes, by Lester Pine, featured a young Zina Bethune in her first acting role.[9] Diana Sands made her New York stage debut at the Greenwich Mews; Vinie Burrows, Paulene Myers, and Gilbert Price also appeared there.[10][11][12] Holt preferred to be closely involved with the casting process in her productions, and said that her vision impairment caused no difficulty: "I listen carefully," she told the Boston Globe, "I can 'feel' it if an actor is right for a role."[13]

Holt produced the work of many leading Black writers, including Langston Hughes, Loften Mitchell, Alice Childress, Bill Gunn, and William Branch.[14][15] The Greenwich Mews Theater, under her leadership, was one of only a few producing shows with integrated or all-Black casts.[3][16] In a remembrance after Holt's death, Loften Mitchell wrote that "she produced more plays by black writers than any other white producer that I know."[17]

In 1955 Greenwich Mews presented Alice Childress's first full-length play, Trouble In Mind, about the experiences of Black artists in the white-dominated theater industry.[18] The play was directed by Childress herself, starring Clarice Taylor; it ran for 91 performances.[19] During the production process, there was a dispute between Childress and the producers (a group that included Holt) over the ending of the play. The producers pushed for a more optimistic conclusion, asking for a "scene of unity" between Black and white characters – the ending as originally written provided no such redemption. Childress argued that this outcome was "wishful thinking," and would be unrealistic, but was forced to make the change. When the play was published, the text was restored to its original form.[20]

In 1965, the Cuban-born director Gilberto Zaldívar joined Holt as an associate producer at the Greenwich Mews, becoming co-producer with Frances Drucker after Holt's death.[21]

Stella Holt produced Langston Hughes's musical Simply Heavenly in May 1957, with a budget of $4,200 and a cast that starred Mel Stewart and Claudia McNeil.[22] The production, directed by Joshua Shelley with music by David Martin, began its off-Broadway run at the 85th Street Playhouse.[23] The fire department closed the theater after 49 performances because of a failed building inspection, so Holt and Hughes decided to move the production to Broadway. Simply Heavenly began performances again in August at the Playhouse Theater.[24]

After a successful Broadway run, Simply Heavenly re-opened off-Broadway in November 1957. It was shut down again in January of 1958, after a ruling by Actors' Equity. The show's union cast alleged that Stella Holt was making prohibited and underhanded budget maneuvers to update the building and meet inspection requirements.

Despite these difficulties, Langston Hughes brought Holt on again as a co-producer on his Jerico-Jim Crow in 1964.[14] In 1965 Holt produced Hughes's Prodigal Son at the Greenwich Mews, directed by Vinnette Carroll.[25] 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 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."[14]