Armina Marshall | |
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 Marshall in 1955 | |
| Other names | Armina Marshall Langer, Isabelle Louden |
| Occupation(s) | playwright, actress |
Armina Marshall (1895-1991) was a playwright and actress, and the first co-director of New York'sTheatre Guild.[1][2]
Marshall's New York acting debut was in 1922 inPaul Claudel'sThe Tidings Brought to Mary. She shifted to producing once she was married, and was the co-author of seven plays, three on Broadway, including the 1933 hitPursuit of Happiness produced by The Federal Theatre Division of theWorks Progress Administration (written under the pseudonym Isabelle Louden).[3][4]
Marshall was instrumental in bringing the Theatre Guild to new audiences, directing "Theater Guild of the Air" for eight years on the radio, as well as "The U.S. Steel Hour" for eight years on television.[5][6] Marshall and her co-producers won aTony Award for Best Play in 1958 for the production ofSunrise At Campobello.[7] She later went on to be a producer at the Theater Guild. The Theater Guild's production ofOklahoma in 1943 was said to have "transformed the face of American musical theater."[8]
Along with her husband, Marshall founded and operated theWestport Country Playhouse in 1930 which did "New York plays" for a Connecticut audience.[1] Marshall and Langer converted an old cow barn into a venue with a Broadway-sized stage.[9] They operated the theater continuously, except for a small break during WWII, until 1959.[9]
Marshall was born in Oklahoma in the narrow border between Oklahoma and Kansas known asCherokee Outlet.[1] Her father was a sheriff.[1] The family moved to California and she attended theUniversity of California Los Angeles and was a school teacher inBrawley, California.[1]
She marriedLawrence Langner in 1925. He died in 1962.[3] The couple had one son and two granddaughters.[3]
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