| Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | M&B |
| Formation | 1852 |
| Type | Collegiate theatre troupe |
| Legal status | Active |
| Purpose/focus | Student-run alternative |
| Headquarters | Stage III, Poulton Hall |
| Location | Georgetown University |
| Region served | Washington, D.C., USA |
| Membership | 90-100 |
| Executive Producer | Laurel Charnetsky |
| Website | http://www.MaskAndBauble.org |
The Mask and Bauble Dramatic Society of Georgetown University is the oldest continuously running collegiate theatre troupe in the United States.[1] Today, the Society is one of five theatre groups on the Georgetown campus and is entirely student-run. In its 160th Season, Mask and Bauble continues to provide an opportunity for students to develop artistic, technical, and administrative skills, while performing high-quality theatre for the enjoyment of the Georgetown University community and the surrounding District of Columbia.
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Mask and Bauble was founded in 1852 as The Dramatic Association of Georgetown College, staging its first show on February 27, 1853. Washington area actor John Wilkes Booth was among the non-Georgetown students involved in the early performances. World War I priorities caused a suspension of group activities, and after the war the group was revived with the new name of Mask and Bauble. The society was the first of its kind to use female actresses in 1922, as female roles were previously filled by male actors. It formally accepted female members in 1934.[2]
During this time the Society had a close relationship with the Roosevelt White House, boasting Eleanor Roosevelt as a society patron.[3] The Society continued to serve the Presidency through the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, when student technicians assisted with the technical aspects of some of the nation's first televised presidential press conferences.[2] This intimate relationship with the White House was nurtured by the society's faculty adviser, Donn B. Murphy, who also served as theatrical adviser to Kennedy and Johnson. Murphy served until 1976, although he remains involved with Georgetown theatre to the modern day. The Society's annual playwright contest and one acts festival is conducted in his honor and bears his name.
Mask and Bauble continues to perform in Poulton Hall's Stage Three, a block from Georgetown's main gates on the corner of 37th and P Street NW.[4] This theater space was seized from the university by Mask and Bauble students over spring break in 1975. These students, unhappy with university commitment to theater, squatted in what was previously Room 57, and built a makeshift theater in the space they named Stage Two.[2] While the university forced this to be taken down, it built Mask and Bauble a small theater in Poulton Hall, which became Stage Three. Stage One was then converted into the scene and costume shop. While the club's alumni were very active in raising money to build Georgetown's new Davis Performing Arts Center, the society and other student groups have been restricted from using the Center's main theatre due to their insistence on maintaining student, rather than faculty, direction.In 2009, Mask & Bauble co-produced Caroline, or Change with the Black Theater Ensemble and the Department of Performing Arts on the main stage of the Davis center, making it the first student directed play on the Gonda Stage.
Club membership hovers around 90-100 students, making it the largest theatre group on Georgetown's campus.
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