LAWREN HARRIS ET AL

[Richard Partington]

Gaetan Charlebois and Kathy Chung requested info re Lawren Harris and his
theatrical activities.
I've been looking at this area a bit recently and will share a few things I have
found.
All the Group of Seven were members of the Toronto Arts and Letters Club (1908-) in
its early decades.
When Hart House Theatre was opened in 1919, courtesy of Vincent Massey, Roy
Mitchell of the TALC was appointed director, and he used many of the club's artists
as designers including, it would appear, all of the Group of 7. Here are some
details:

during Roy Mitchell's directorship:
-1919 - The Chester Mysteries - des. by JEH MacDonald [and Lawren Harris?] -
(music by Healey Willan - all of the cast from the TALC)
-1920 - Matsuo - (Takedo Izumo) - des. by Arthur Lismer
-1920 - You Never Can Tell (Shaw) - des. by Lawren Harris
-1920 - The New Sin (Basil Hastings) (they got into trouble for this one I think) - des.
by Lawren Haris
-1921 - Cymbeline (Shakespeare) - des. by Merrill Denison and Arthur Lismer

during Bertram Forsyth's directorship:
-1921 - Candida (Shaw) - des. Lawren Harris - (Raymond Massey as Marchbanks)
-1923 - The Toils of Yoshitomo - (Torohiko Tori) - des. by Arthur Lismer
-1925 - Gold (O'Neill) - des. by Arthur Lismer

That's all I know for the moment. Other details can be found in Augustus Bridle's
The Story of the Club (Toronto:1945) ; Merrill Denison's article "Hart House
Theatre" in Canadian Bookman  March 1923  61-63 and elsewhere. Ann Stuart
would probably have more detailed information, I think.

Thanks. Richard Partington