Originally founded in 1915 as the Dramatic Club, Wig & Candle is one of Connecticut College's oldest student organizations. Formed before the college had a theater department of its own, the group was the school's main producer of live theater for many years. Between 1915 and 1920, the Dramatic Club produced one play a year under the supervision of a faculty member or other knowledgeable person. In 1921, they took full charge of their productions. In 1927, they became Wig & Candle, and in 1934, began sponsoring speakers and readings.
By the 1930s, Wig & Candle put on three plays a year and established an honorary membership point system. Because Conn was still a women's college, the group found men in many places, including in the Conn faculty, Mitchell College, University of Connecticut, Yale University, New London, Fort Trumbull, Wesleyan University, and the nearby submarine base. Performances were usually held in Palmer Auditorium. Other event locations included Windham House, the arboretum, Knowlton House, and the now-demolished Thames Hall. In 1934, the group began bringing speakers and presenters to campus while backing the house plays, competitive class plays (from 1926) and freshman pageants, as well as presenting short plays at amalgamation meetings, a commencement play, and an annual melodrama. In the late 1940s, Academy Award winner Estelle Parsons '49 served as publicity chair and business manager.
By the 1950s, Wig & Candle membership worked on a point system. For their participation in shows as actors or crew, women earned points. Full membership required 20 points and participation in at least 3 productions. Over the years, Wig & Candle produced many well-known plays such as Hedda Gabbler, The Glass Menagerie, and Antigone. In the early 1950s, Joan Molinsky, later known as comedian Joan Rivers, served as a director for the competitive class plays.
By the 1930s, Wig & Candle put on three plays a year and established an honorary membership point system. Because Conn was still a women's college, the group found men in many places, including in the Conn faculty, Mitchell College, University of Connecticut, Yale University, New London, Fort Trumbull, Wesleyan University, and the nearby submarine base. Performances were usually held in Palmer Auditorium. Other event locations included Windham House, the arboretum, Knowlton House, and the now-demolished Thames Hall. In 1934, the group began bringing speakers and presenters to campus while backing the house plays, competitive class plays (from 1926) and freshman pageants, as well as presenting short plays at amalgamation meetings, a commencement play, and an annual melodrama. In the late 1940s, Academy Award winner Estelle Parsons '49 served as publicity chair and business manager.
By the 1950s, Wig & Candle membership worked on a point system. For their participation in shows as actors or crew, women earned points. Full membership required 20 points and participation in at least 3 productions. Over the years, Wig & Candle produced many well-known plays such as Hedda Gabbler, The Glass Menagerie, and Antigone. In the early 1950s, Joan Molinsky, later known as comedian Joan Rivers, served as a director for the competitive class plays.
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In 1967, Wig & Candle merged with another Connecticut College group, Experimental Theatre, to form Theater One. Membership required 25 hours of work on a production. Theater One's first productions were No Exit and The Bald Soprano. The new group frequently co-produced shows with the new theater department. In the late 1990s, Theater One stopped producing shows. By this time, the college's theater department was thriving, so student-run theater was less necessary to the the theater community.
In 2009, recognizing the need for a "second stage" at Conn, Molly Clifford '13 and Grant Jacoby '13 revived the club, building on the missions of two other organizations: Group Art Attack and Theater Foundations. Today, Wig & Candle shows are directed, designed, produced, and performed by Conn students. Since its revival, Wig & Candle has seen the premiere of two original plays and two original musicals. |
Partial Production History Prior to 2009
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As the Dramatic Club:
1916 Poor Dear Mama by Rudyard Kipling As Wig & Candle: 1927 Mr. Pim Passes By by A. A. Milne 1928 Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw Love-In-a-Mist by Amélie Rivers & Gilbert Emery The Magic Window 1929 The Second Mrs. Tanqueray by Sir Arthur Wing Pinero The Truth About Blayds by A. A. Milne 1930 Pomander Walk by Louis N. Parker 1931 The Angel Intrudes by Floyd Dell Dear Brutus by James Barrie 1932 Holiday by Philip Barry The Young Idea by Noel Coward 1933 Alice Sit-By-The-Fire by John Barry Pride and Prejudice adapted by Mary Keith Medbery Mackaye 1934 Hay Fever by Noel Coward The Late Christopher Bean by Sidney Howard 1935 The Cradle Song by G. Martinez Sierra Manikin and Minikin by Alfred Creynborg The Widow's Veil by Alice Rosseller When the Whirlwind Blows by Essex Dane The Acid Test by C. P. Smith (Blackstone House Play) Presentation on Russian Theater by Helen P. Wheeler Unknown year (before 1936) You Never Can Tell by George Bernard Shaw 1936 Before Breakfast by Eugene O'Neill The Gibbet's Foot by Edward Stasheff East of Eden by Christopher Morley Reading of A Bill of Divorcement by Clemence Dane The Discovery by Francis Sheridan First Lady by George S. Kaufman & Katharine Dayton 1937 Presentation on "The Movement in the Dance" by Henry Coult The Forest Rose by Samuel Woodworth The Dover Road by A. A. Milne (with Wesleyan's Paint & Powder) The Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw 1938 A Bill of Divorcement by Clemence Dane The Late Christopher Bean by Sidney Howard (with Trinity College's The Jesters) 1939 Judge Lynch by John William Roberts Jr. Beauty and the Jacobin by Booth Tarkington Moor Born by Dan Totheroh Our Town by Thorton Wilder 1940 Stage Door by Edna Ferber & George S. Kaufman Presentation on Austrian & German Theater by Dr. Alois M. Nagler R. U. R. by Karel Capek Scenes from Lucy Stone by Maude Park Wood 1941 Quality Street by James Barrie Superstition by James Nelson Barker |
1942
The Royal Family by Edna Ferber & George S. Kaufman Letters to Lucerne by Fritz Rotter & Allen Vincent 1943 Miss Elizabeth Bennett by A. A. Milne 1946 Fountain of Dancing Children by Fanya Foss Lawrence (radio show) 1947 Night Must Fall by Emlyn Williams Lady Precious Stream by Hsiung Shih-I 1948 Ladies in Retirement by Reginald Denham & Edward Percy Antigone by Sophocles 1950 Years Ago by Ruth Gordon 1951 The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams 1952 The Madwoman of Chaillot by Jean Giraudoux 1953 Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen 1957 Blood Wedding by Frederico García Lorca 1958 As You Desire Me by Luigi Pirandello 1962 House of Bernarda Alba by Frederico García Lorca As Theater One: 1967 No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco 1968 Hey You, Light Man by Oliver Hailey 1969 Chamber Music by Arthur Koti It's Called the Sugar Plum by Israel Horovitz 1970 Judgement at Chicago by John Dendy & Hester Kinnicutt '73 (with the New London Connecticut Civil Liberties Union) 1971 Presentation by Earth Theatre (with the Theater Department, the Drama Club, Survival, and Zero Population Growth) 1972 Moonchildren by Michael Weller (with the Theater Department) 1981 Black Comedy by Peter Shaffer Pippin by Roger O. Hirson & Stephen Schwartz (with the Theater Department) 1982 The Firebugs by Max Frisch (with the Theater Department) Les Fourberies de Scapin by Moliere (with the Theater Department and the French Department) 1983 Metamorphosis adapted by Charles Dizenzo (with the Theater Department) 1990 Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare (with the Theater Department) |
