Frederic Lansing Day

Frederic Lansing Day was an American playwright b. 1886 in Boston, Massachusetts d. 1982 in New Hampshire. Frederic Day (also known as "Fritz") the son of H.B. Day the founder of the Day Trust Company was a Socialist and Unitarian. He graduated from Yale in 1908 and married Katharine Munroe (b. 1891 d. 1956) whom he later divorced. They had a home built in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1920. He later remarried. Frederic Day worked briefly as a journalist and as an employee in his father's bank, but did poorly in both jobs and did not need full time employment to support his family. Day considered himself to be a failure having little success in regular employment and publishing a relatively small body of works, only one of which brought him any fame having been performed at a number of theaters. He is best known for two plays, "The Makers of Light: A Play in Three Parts" (1925) originally produced by The 47 Workshop of Harvard and published by Brentano's and "The Slump" (1920), also produced by The 47 Workshop.

Makers of Light

Makers of Light is a drama copyrighted by Day in 1920 and published in 1925. It was first shown at the Agassiz House Theater in Cambridge Nov. 25, 1921. The cast consisted of F.C. Packard, Jr., Angela Morris, Edith Coburn Noyes, Dorothy Sands, Oviatt McConnell, Henry Carlton, James Daly, F.L. Strong, Norman Clark, E.P. Goodnow and Robert Bushnell. It opened at the Neighborhood Playhouse of New York, the Little Theater of Cleveland and the Play House of Cleveland.

"Makers of Light, when originally produced by the 47 Workshop made so deep an impression that later it was played at the Neighborhood Playhouse, New York City. Here it was again praised for its sincerity, subtle characterization of the chief figures and its power. Given at the Little Theater, Clevland, in the winter of 1924, it was revived the following autumn." -Professor George P. Barker

The dedication to the Makers of Light reads, "To my father; For his affection in spite of disapproval, his loyalty in spite of disbelief."

External links

* [http://www.heniford.net/4321/index.php?n=Citations-G.GoodWoman-A-2m1f Small-Cast One-Act Guide Online]
* [http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=12811 Internet Broadway Database: Makers of Light]
* [http://hul.harvard.edu/huarc/refshelf/cba/names.html Cambridge Buildings and Architects] (information on residency in Cambridge)
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9503E7DF1231EF33A25757C2A9639C946395D6CF New York Times Review: May 24, 1922]
* [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9906E3DA1339E133A25752C2A9639C946395D6CF New York Times: May 21, 1922]
* [http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch00766 Munroe, Katherine Langdon, 1891-1956]