Ellen Van Volkenburg
{{Sources exist|date=December 2019}}
{{short description|American actress}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Use American English|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name =
| image = Ellen Van Volkenburg, circa 1918.jpg
| alt =
| caption =Ellen Van Volkenburg, circa 1918
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1882|10|08}}
| birth_place = Battle Creek, Michigan, US
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1978|12|15|1882|10|08}}
| death_place =
| nationality =
| other_names =
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| spouse = Maurice Browne
| children =
}}
Ellen Van Volkenburg (October 8, 1882 – December 15, 1978), born Nellie Van Volkenburg in Battle Creek, Michigan, was a leading actress, director, puppeteer and theater educator in the United States and the UK.
Career
Educated at the University of Michigan, Van Volkenburg has been credited, along with her then-husband Englishman Maurice Browne, with being the founder of the Little Theatre Movement in America through their work with the Chicago Little Theatre.{{cite book|last=Browne|first=Maurice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iUfmKJ0OXM4C&q=%22Too%20Late%20to%20Lament:%20An%20Autobiography%22|title=Too Late to Lament: An Autobiography|place=London|publisher=Gollancz|date=1955|page=128|access-date=2024-02-19}}
File:Chicago Little Theatre.jpg
Van Volkenburg and Browne went on to found the department of drama at the Cornish School in Seattle in 1918, now Cornish College of the Arts.{{cite book|last=Cornish|first=Nellie C.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ovVCAAAAIAAJ|title=Miss Aunt Nellie: The Autobiography of Nellie C. Cornish|place=Seattle, Washington |publisher=University of Washington Press|date=1964|page=109|isbn=978-0-295-73848-2 |access-date=2024-02-19}} In 1921, Browne and Volkenburg acted in the performance of George Bernard Shaw's The Philanderer at the Cornish School playhouse.{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/seattle-union-record-the-philanderer/143850007/|title=Maurice Browne Players Please In Philanderer|work=Seattle Union Record|place=Seattle, Washington|date=July 18, 1921|access-date=2024-03-21}}
Although she divorced Maurice Browne in 1922, for much of her life she signed herself "Ellen Van Volkenburg Browne."
At the operning night of the Theatre of the Golden Bough, Volkenburg had the title-role in Maurice Browne's play, The Mother of Gregory, which played June 6, 7, and 14, 1924.{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DM_J66V6gfgC|journal= Dramatic Publishing Company|volume= 15-16 |title=The Drama |date=1924 |page=33|access-date=2024-02-19}}
Death
She died on December 15, 1978.
References
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External links
- [https://findingaids.lib.umich.edu/catalog/umich-scl-vvb Ellen Van Volkenburg and Maurice Browne papers, 1772-1983]
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