Loyola College Playshop, 1941

The Loyola College Playshop was formed in 1940 under the direction of Fr. Richard F. Grady, S.J. As reported in the September 27, 1940 issue of the Greyhound, “Its membership will be limited to a small group of students who are interested in in writing one-act plays and dramatic skits for presentation on the stage and radio. Father Grady hopes to be able to draw from the writings of this group a play suitable for entry in the annual One-Act Play Contest sponsored by the Conference of Dramatic clubs of Jesuit Colleges of the Middle States….A student musical revue….is also tentatively planned….for next spring.” However, there is no record that one-act plays were produced by this theatrical group.

In 1941, the Loyola College Playshop did produce a musical revue, “Your Town,” which was a “Loyal Lampoon” of Baltimore and its prominent public figures. Both the words and music were written by Playshop members. The cast was drawn from the Masque and Rapiers Dramatic Society, and other Loyola students.

Beyond this 1941 production, the historical record of Playshop is rather sketchy. The January 23, 1942 issue of the Greyhound announced that Playshop put out an appeal for old sheet music “in connection with the projected musical review based on the youth of Henry L. Mencken,” but there is no further evidence of this project. The December 15, 1942 issue of Greyhound reports that the annual Loyola Night will feature a play called “Dead Men Do Tell Tales” that was written by Loyola student Bill Perkinson and that won the “Play Shop” contest in the previous year. The only catalog listing Playshop as a college organization is 1941-1942. The Autumn 1943 Evergreen yearbook states that “a Playshop has been formed to write one-act plays.” It does not appear that Playshop survived the World War II era.