Gregory FALLS (1922-1997)

1 Gregory A. FALLS^1,2,3 (1922-1997) [10046]. Born 1922, Russellville, AK.³ Died 3 Apr 1997, Seattle, WA.³ Cause: Pneumonia.

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA)

April 5,1997 - "Deceased Name: GREGORY A. FALLS, ACT FOUNDER AND PERFORMING ARTS PIONEER, DIES AT 75.
Gregory A. Fails, who founded A Contemporary Theatre more than three decades ago and devoted most of his life to making the theater arts blossom in Seattle, has died at the age of 75.
Falls, a true performing arts pioneer and well-regarded leader for his numerous contributions to American theater, ardently believed the measure of any great city must include a flourishing and cooperative theater community.
He had a favorite saying, "Theaters are like grapes, they grow in bunches."
Today, a large "bunch" exists in Seattle, and that, said Bathhouse Theatre artistic director Arne Zaslove, can largely be credited to Falls.
"He was the impresario of bringing it all together. He's probably most responsible for the theater boom in this town," Zaslove said yesterday.
Falls had been ACTs artistic director for 23 years when he retired in 1988 due to early indications of Alzheimer's disease.
He was admitted to a Seattle hospital earlier this week for pneumonia and died Thursday.
It seems odd now, but when Falls founded ACT in the summer of 1965, two years after the Seattle Repertory Theatre opened, there were ample naysayers who doubted the city could support a second theater.
"People argued against it," Falls' wife, Jean Burch Falls, recalled in an interview last year. "'they, quite logically, were thinking, We've already got a perfectly good theater!". It was like one symphony is enough, one museum is enough, one ballet, one opera and so on."^
But Falls saw a theatrical niche that could and needed to be filled. The Rep produced predominantly classical plays during
fall and winter months. So, Falls reasoned, why not offer contemporary productions during summer months?
Falls was also instrumental in helping other theaters get their start, including the Empty Space and Intiman.
"He was a gentle gentleman, a gifted theater man and theater teacher," Peter Donnelly, president of the Corporate Council for the Arts, said yesterday-
Falls was born in Russellville, Ark. Even as a child, he loved the theater. He was active in high school plays and his mother used to complain about him loaning out their furniture for various theater productions.
A Fulbright scholar. Falls spent a year in London at the Central School of Speech and Drama He once mused, "I must have seen 100 plays in London, and if anything changed my life, that did,"
Falls began his long and accomplished career directing the drama department at the University of Vermont in the 1950s, during which time he founded the Champlain Shakespeare Festival in Burlington.
With small children in tow, the Fallses came to Seattle in the fall of 1961. Falls would spend the next 10 years as chairman of the School of Drama at the University of Washington.
Shortly after arriving at the university. Falls told a local theater critic, "A nation's theater works best as a reflection of the life and times rather than as a leader. And a playwright should care enough about what he is saying to say it within a form with which an audience can feel comfortable."
In 1963, Falls directed the world premiere of Michael White's opera, 'The Dybbuk," at the Seattle Center Playhouse.
Two years later, the Fallses found a 1911 building on lower Queen Anne Hill. a one-time Shriners meeting place and later a dance hall and badminton club, in which to house their experiment in contemporary theater.
In the first year, back when the top ticket price was $3.50, ACT produced five plays and had a budget of just $140,000.
ACT later moved to 100 W. Roy St., and last year to a new multi-stage home in the old Eagle's Hall at Seventh Avenue and Union Street.
Under Falls' direction, ACT produced some notable and at times controversial work, "Amadeus," "Cloud 9," "Buried Child," "Of Mice and Men, "Godspell" and "The Boys in the Band."
Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," which Falls adapted as a Young ACT production in 1975, remains an annual event.
Falls was inducted into the prestigious College of Fellows of the American Theatre in 1994.
He is survived by his wife, two sons and two daughters - A memorial service will be held at ACT, in the Gregory A. Falls Thrust Theatre, on May 5 at 3 p.m.

Sources

1	"Death notice for Lowell Ross Burch in the New York Times, March 11, 1962".

2	"Death notice for Katherine Wilmerding in the New York Times, May 23, 1962".

3	"Obituary of Gregory A. Falls in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 5, 1997".