F. Curtis Canfield (AC 1925) Papers

Fayette Curtis Canfield (AC 1925), drama professor and director, was born on July 29, 1903 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. After his graduation in 1925, he worked at Amherst as Professor of Theatre and Dramatic Art until 1954. From 1938 onwards, he was also Director of Amherst's Kirby Theater. In 1954, he was appointed the first dean of the Yale University School of Drama, a position he held for thirteen years. He left Yale in 1967 to teach Theatre Arts at the University of Pittsburgh, where he stayed until his retirement in 1973. Canfield was a trustee of the National Theatre Conference from 1958 to 1964 and of the American Shakespeare Theatre Festival Academy from 1962 to 1968; and a member of the Century Association of New York from 1953 to 1971. He was awarded honorary degrees by Amherst and Emerson Colleges, and by Yale University. Canfield was married to Katherine F. Newbold on May 21, 1927. He died in Northampton on June 8, 1986, at the age of 82.

Canfield wrote and edited several books on theatre, including Plays of the Irish Renaissance (1929), Plays of Changing Ireland (1936), The Seed and the Sowers: A Chronicle of the Founding of Amherst College (1955), and The Craft of Play Directing (1963).