Douglass Crockwell — set designer
Add set designer to the resume of illustrator Douglass Crockwell.
“Authenticity combined with imaginative skill has resulted in a scenery design which is realistic and authentic,” The Post-Star reported on March 4, 1936.
Douglass Crockwell and his wife, also an artist, designed the scenery for the Glens Falls Operetta Club March 12–13 performances of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera “H.M.S. Pinafore” at the Glens Falls Junior High School.
“Her Majesty’s Ship Pinafore is docked in harbor at Portsmouth, England when the curtain goes up,” The Post-Star reported. The scene which has been designed is on board ship, looking off toward the quarter deck. On the deck are two black canons, and two sets of steps leading to the upper deck where the large steering wheel of the sailing vessel is situated.”
The production, to benefit the Glens Falls Hospital Guild, was the debut production of the Glens Falls Operetta Club, now known as Glens Falls Community Theatre.
“The club was formed last fall to fill a long-felt artistic and social need,” The Glens Falls Times reported on March 12. “All the members have cooperated splendidly in giving talent and time toward making the production a success.”
The cast included a chorus of 30 men and 20 women, including Margaret Crockwell, wife of Douglass Crockwell.
Lead actresses included Mrs. Carl Bronne, in the role of Little Butter Cup, and Minna Feigenbaum.
Paul E. Bergan and Edgar S. Pitkin directed the production.
More than 500 people attended on the opening night, and about 650 on the second night, The Post-Star reported on March 14.
Douglass Crockwell returned for an encore as set designer for the 1937 Glens Falls Operetta Club performance of the Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera “Patience.”
“That Douglass Crockwell, distinguished artist, has designed its scenery, is one of the factors making the Operetta Club production, ‘Patience,’ a superior amateur show,” The Post-Star reported on Jan. 30, 1937.
“The scene Mr. Crockwell designed … is a stylized English forest. Amid enormous oaks stands a 17th century castle. In the clearing before the castle takes place the side-splitting drama of lovesick maidens, poets, and dangerous guards.”
Lead actresses and actors included Ida Hicks, Charles W. Pollard and Mrs. Carl Bronne.
In 1955, Crockwell designed the backdrop for the Glens Falls Operetta Club production of “Song of Norway.”
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