Theatre: Detroit Civic

For several years Detroit has had an organization known as the Bonstelle Playhouse, run by Jessie Bonstelle. In this theatre many good actors have played and Miss Bonstelle, a kindly, able, loquacious lady, is regarded as an expert impresario. It is said that she taught Alice Brady how to act and other able mimes—Ben Lyons, Ann Harding, James Rennie, Katherine Cornell, Helen Menken—have appeared in her productions. Last spring Jessie Bonstelle organized a drive for subscribers in order to convert her playhouse into a

Civic Theatre. Last week, the Detroit Civic Theatre opened with its production of The Queen’s Husband by Robert Emmett Sherwood. Mr. & Mrs. Henry Ford attended the opening and sat in the front row and Governor Green of Michigan, together with municipal officials, occupied a box.

The Detroit Civic Theatre possesses now an endowment of $200,000 which has been provided by 30,000 of its patrons. Box-office profits go back into the sustaining fund of the theatre. This year the Detroit Civic Theatre will present for children several free performances of plays selected by school teachers; also an outdoor performance of some as yet unnamed classical play with the assistance of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. In addition it will maintain its own school of dramatic art.