Maxinkuckee Their Next Stop

ALLEN FLETCHER (left), Purdue speech department staffer, and the Smiths during last year's Shakespearean festival in Oregon.

Journal and Courier Lafayette, Indiana
Sat, Jun 2, 1951
BY BARBARA HAWKINS Staff Writer

THEATER seems to hold an allure for the Smiths - Dick and his wife, the former Elynor Molke.

Because they have applied their talents to the upmost, they have won a place at the Maxinkuckee Playhouse at Culver this summer.

With them they are taking a wide experience for thespians so young. Radio work, acting and directing, many plays at Purdue's Playshop and a summer at the Shakespearean festival at Ashland, Ore., are woven into the fabric of their theatrical reputations. This backlog helped win the chance for them, and may some day place boards of the legitimate stage under their feet.

Together they will spend 10 fleeting weeks on the lake at this theater which was converted from A barn last year.

Summer stock has long been recognized by directors as well as actors as one of the best training grounds for those who must be in the theater to live. Eighteen students were chosen after try-outs on 17 midwestern college campuses. Two of the spots were snagged by the Smiths, leaving places for nine men and seven women.

Among the 10 plays to be given will be

"Come Back, Little Sheba," appearing on Broadway this season;

"Life With Father," from the Clarence Day book;

"Private Lives," a vehicle which built wellknown careers; and

"The Philadelphia Story."

"NONIE" got her first role, a walk-on, in Little Theater, when in "The Eve of St. Mark," she lured a victim off stage. Dancing and singing started at Highland grade school, where a play of her own was produced complete with 8 last minute catastrophe, when an adventurous mouse was pilfered just before curtain time.

She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. H. J. Molke, 708 Vine street, West Lafayette. Dick first tried his ability in the Harlequin show, "Rio Rita," a couple of years ago.

From that part as the innkeeper, he became interested in Playshop and has since stacked up 8 neat pile of successes. In June, he will graduate with a major in economics and speech. "Nonie" was graduated in 1946 in speech and drama. Both want to add a master of arts to the bachelor degree. They live at 158 South Grant street, West Lafayette.

Remember Playshop's production of "Romeo and Juliet" this season? The wise and compassionate compassionate priest was played by Dick; "Nonie" was the comical, loyal nurse of young Juliet, Maria in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" was another role which she played to the hilt. To date the role of Henry Brock in "Born Yesterday" is Dick's favorite. There will be equally good roles for them both, and on some professional stage somewhere there will be equally good performances. At the moment their hope is that they can go on with the theater some way.

In their own words, "it's a hard nut to crack," but realizing the vast requirements, they will take it role by role.