IN MEMORIAM

Walden Philip Boyle

Professor of Theater Arts, Emeritus

Los Angeles

1908–2002

Walden Boyle died on October 15, 2002, at the UCLA Medical Center at the age of 94. He was a pioneer in the development of theater as an area of study in colleges and universities. This can best be identified by his role as one of the founding faculty of the Department of Theater Arts at UCLA.

 

Born in Winside, Nebraska on July 18, 1908, he moved with his family to Portland, Oregon when he was three. “Wally”, as he was known by colleagues and students, was determined to pursue a career in theater and thus entered the University of Oregon in the early 1930s. He interrupted his undergraduate program to experience professional theater in New York City where he acted in a number of Broadway productions and was also employed by the Shubert Theatre organization. He gained further acting experience when he moved to the Los Angeles area and was cast in plays at the Pasadena Playhouse. Returning to the University of Oregon he completed his B.A. degree in 1937 and remained at the university as an Instructor in Drama until 1939. In 1938 Wally worked with the Max Reinhardt Theatre Academy in Hollywood and then went on to Cornell University to study for his master’s degree. At Cornell he met his future wife, Hazel Miller, while studying French in a class she was teaching. They were married in February of 1939. He completed his M.A. in 1940 with a thesis titled “French Symbolist Theatre”. His first full-time academic appointment was at Hobart College where he served as Head of Drama and Speech until 1943. Returning to Los Angeles he worked intermittently as an actor in motion pictures and in 1941 was invited by Ralph Freud, an acquaintance from his Pasadena Playhouse years, to teach in the Summer Session and direct Our Town. In the fall he returned to Cornell to begin work on his Ph.D. He again taught in the 1942 Summer Session. With World War II underway he remained in Los Angeles and worked in a defense plant while completing his dissertation, “Basic Elements of Art in the Theater”. He received his Ph.D. in 1943.

 

Wally was invited to join the UCLA English Department as a Lecturer in January 1944 and taught courses in speech, play production, direction, and acting. After strenuous efforts to establish a theater department with his colleague, Ralph Freud, a Department of Theater Arts was initiated on July 1, 1947. He directed the department’s first production, The Wanhope Building, inaugurating the newly converted theater space, Royce Hall 170. Appointed as an instructor on the academic ladder Wally moved steadily to a full professorship in his years of academic service.

 

Wally embodied the core beliefs of the Department which offered a balance of academic and theater study integrated with theater production. His academic background was reinforced by his experience as a actor in over forty major motion pictures. He prudently blended acting opportunities into his teaching career, appearing in such films as Stranger on a Train, Miracle on 34th Street, Hans Christian Andersen, Son of Paleface, and others. This experience strengthened his role as a director, providing him with a keen sense of the actor’s responsibility in conveying the playwright’s message to the audience. As a director of fifty-seven plays this mix of academic and professional acting activities contributed to his wide range of play selection. An example of this versatility can be seen in many of the plays he directed, among them: Man and Superman, Uncle Vanya, Henry IV Part I, The School for Scandal, Tartuffe, and The Man Who Came to Dinner.

 

His interest in theater production carried over into his teaching where he produced over 350 one-act plays through his advanced directing class. This was a core activity of the department in which students directed plays written by student playwrights with scenery, lighting and costumes designed by students. This culminating experience exposed students to the artistic process that centered on their broad theatrical education. At the graduate level his respected courses included “Aesthetics in the Theater” and “Backgrounds of Theater Arts” which challenged hundreds of graduate students over the years.

 

In addition to his full teaching and directing schedule, Wally wrote Central and Flexible Staging published in 1956. This book described theatrical production in Royce Hall 170 and was one of the early works in this country describing the adjustment of actor/audience space to accommodate the needs of the play. This type of flexible theater space is now a widely utilized architectural form known as “multiform theater.”

 

His 32 years of full-time service to the University of California, Los Angeles included many Academic Senate committees, such as Budget and Interdepartmental Relations, Educational Policy, Committee on Committees, etc. In addition, he served on numerous College of Fine Arts committees, was chair of the Department of Theater Arts, president of the UCLA Faculty Center Association (1973), and president of the UCLA Emeriti Association (1978). His outside professional activities included charter membership in the Southern California Educational Theater Association (serving as president in 1950-51) and membership in both the American Theater Association and the Association for the Theater in Higher Education.

 

Wally retired in 1976 but continued his interest in UCLA. Always a supporter of UCLA athletic programs he continued to attend football and basketball games until recently when he utilized television to observe sporting events. He maintained his activities in the Emeriti and Faculty Center Associations and daily could be found shooting billiards with his friends at the Faculty Center.

 

Walden Boyle is survived by his wife, Hazel, his two children, Philip and Patricia, and three grandchildren, Catherine, Christopher, and Patrick. Wally will be missed by his family, students, and colleagues. His intense interest in theater and willingness to support student endeavors will not be forgotten by those who encountered this quiet, calm teacher, director, actor, and mentor.

 

 

                         Donald Crabs

                         James Klain

                         John Young