Oral Histories
Interview of Ralph Freud
UCLA professor of theater and director of the Pasadena Playhouse.
- Subtitle:
- A Career in Professional and University Theater
- Series:
- Interviews not in a series, part one
- Topic:
- UCLA and University of California HistoryTheaterUCLA Faculty
- Biographical Note:
- UCLA professor of theater and director of the Pasadena Playhouse.
- Interviewee:
- Freud, Ralph
- Persons Present:
- Duttera and Freud.
- Place Conducted:
- Freud's office, UCLA.
- Supporting Documents:
- Records relating to the interview are located in the office of the UCLA Library's Center for Oral History Research.
- Interviewer Background and Preparation:
- The interview was conducted by Bonnie Duttera, Oral History Program, UCLA; B.A., history, UCLA.
- Processing of Interview:
- Bernard Galm, Oral History Program, UCLA.M.A., theater arts, UCLA edited the transcript.Transcription of Tape I was completed in 1962, but because of the poor audio quality of Tape II and III, the transcription was not undertaken and completed until 1967. The questions by the interviewer are almost entirely inaudible on these two tapes. The editor did an audit/edit of this manuscript, introducing punctuation and verifying name spellings. The material is presented in the order in which it was recorded and transcribed; there are no deletions.Freud reviewed and approved the edited manuscript, from which this final version was typed. He graciously helped to reconstruct the probable content of the questions that were inaudible, Mrs. Duttera being unavailable. No other major changes were made.The index and supporting documents were prepared by the editor.
- Length:
- 4 hrs.
- Language:
- English
- Copyright:
- Regents of the University of California, UCLA Library.
- Abstract:
- Works Progress Administration Federal Theater Project and Hallie Flanagan; conflict between Washington and California administrations; attempts at national theater; start of UCLA Department of Theater Arts, 1947; department faculty: Kenneth Macgowan, William W. Melnitz, Walden Boyle, and Henry (Heinrich) Schnitzler; university theater and Hollywood community; Writers Congress, 1943; McCarthyism on campus; background of Ramona Pageant; pageant site and first production; childhood in Detroit; early theatrical training; years with Pasadena Playhouse, 1921-29; first teaching of summer session, UCLA, 1932; employment by San Francisco Jewish Community Center, mid-1930s; director Federal Theater, San Francisco, 1937-38; appointment to UCLA English department, 1938; little-theater movement throughout United States; Broadway and off-Broadway theater; socially conscious theater; modern psychological drama; economics and theater.