Fondo F1329 - Betty Mitchell fonds

Betty Mitchell, 1896-1976, was born in Ohio, USA, and moved to Oyen, Alberta with her family in 1912. She graduated in botany from the University of Alberta in 1924 and accepted a teaching position in Calgary. While teaching at Central High School in 1929, she and E. Julius Thorlakson founded the Green Room Club to foster the dramatic arts. The group produced several plays at the Side Door Play House, and sponsored the first Alberta Drama Festival in 1930.

In 1934 she began teaching at Western Canada High School and in 1936 became director of WCHS's Department of Drama. She received a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1942, to study various aspects of drama in the USA. She received her MA in theatre from the State University of Iowa in 1944. The same year she founded Workshop 14 in Calgary, a group which took awards in many regional and national drama festivals. In 1958 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Alberta for her outstanding work in the field of drama. She retired from teaching in 1961, but remained active in Alberta drama.

For more details see Betty Mitchell / Kenneth Dyba. - Calgary : Detselig Enterprises, 1986.