Armina Marshall

{{Short description|American playwright and actress, early producer at the Theatre Guild}}

{{Infobox person

|name = Armina Marshall

|image = Armina_Marshall.png

|caption = Marshall in 1955

|birth_date =

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|other_names = Armina Marshall Langer, Isabelle Louden

|known_for =

|occupation = playwright, actress

}}

Armina Marshall (1895-1991) was a playwright and actress, and the first co-director of New York's Theatre Guild.{{cite web |last=Lask|first=Thomas|title=Armina Marshall Takes Stock of Stage | website=The New York Times | date=1976-01-01 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/01/01/archives/armina-marshall-takes-stock-of-stage-a-pyrrhic-victory-pattern-has.html | access-date=2021-03-19}}{{cite web | title=Armina Marshall | website=Playbill | date=1952-10-17 | url=http://www.playbill.com/person/armina-marshall-vault-0000002476 | access-date=2021-03-19}}

Marshall's New York acting debut was in 1922 in Paul Claudel's The Tidings Brought to Mary. She shifted to producing once she was married, and was the co-author of seven plays, three on Broadway, including the 1933 hit Pursuit of Happiness produced by The Federal Theatre Division of the Works Progress Administration (written under the pseudonym Isabelle Louden).{{cite web | title=Armina Marshall Is Dead at 96; Co-Founder of the Theater Guild | website=The New York Times | date=1991-07-22 | last=Fowler|first=Glenn|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/22/obituaries/armina-marshall-is-dead-at-96-co-founder-of-the-theater-guild.html | access-date=2021-03-19}}{{cite web | title=Arms and the Girl | website=Dorothy Fields | url=https://dorothyfields.org/s_arms.htm | access-date=2021-03-19}}

Marshall was instrumental in bringing the Theatre Guild to new audiences, directing "Theater Guild of the Air" for eight years on the radio, as well as "The U.S. Steel Hour" for eight years on television.{{cite web | title=Armina Marshall | website=RUSC Old Time Radio - Download over 35,000 OTR shows | date=1952-03-30 | url=https://www.rusc.com/old-time-radio/Armina-Marshall.aspx?t=15052 | access-date=2021-03-19}}{{cite journal |last1=Marshall |first1=Armina |title=The Theatre Guild in Your Parlor |journal=Theatre Arts 1955-10 |date=October 1955 |volume=39 |issue=10 |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_theatre-arts_1955-10_39_10/ |access-date=19 March 2021}} Marshall and her co-producers won a Tony Award for Best Play in 1958 for the production of Sunrise At Campobello.{{cite web | title=Winners | website=The American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards® | url=https://www.tonyawards.com/winners/year/1958/category/any/show/any/ | access-date=2021-03-19}} She later went on to be a producer at the Theater Guild. The Theater Guild's production of Oklahoma in 1943 was said to have "transformed the face of American musical theater."{{cite web | last=Archives | first=Los Angeles Times | title=Armina Marshall; Last Founding Member of Theater Guild | website=Los Angeles Times | date=1991-07-24 | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-07-24-mn-317-story.html | access-date=2021-03-19}}

Along with her husband, Marshall founded and operated the Westport Country Playhouse in 1930 which did "New York plays" for a Connecticut audience. Marshall and Langer converted an old cow barn into a venue with a Broadway-sized stage.{{cite web | title=Broadway Comes to Westport - a CTHumanities Project | website=Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project | date=2020-10-20 | url=https://connecticuthistory.org/broadway-comes-to-westport/ | access-date=2021-03-19}} They operated the theater continuously, except for a small break during WWII, until 1959.