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Marion Walker was Production Assistant at Hart House Theatre from 1946 to 1957. Under the directorship of Robert Gill, she designed sets and costumes for each of the Theatre’s annual four plays. Her first production was St. Joan, starring Charmian King. Other early performers who worked with Ms. Walker at Hart House Theatre included Kate Reid, Donald Sutherland, and William Hutt.

The records in this series pertain to Ms. Walker’s involvement with Hart House Theatre. Textual records include scripts 1946, annotated Hart House Theatre programmes 1946 – 1957, and obituaries for Robert Gill, 1974.

Series also includes approximately 100 photographs of various productions for which Ms. Walker designed costumes and sets. The photographs depict various scenes, actors and set designs. Productions represented are: Romeo and Juliet, 1947; Julius Caesar, 1948; the Seagull, 1948; The Skin of Our Teeth, 1948, The Doctor’s Dilemma, 1948; Crime and Punishment, 1949; Othello, 1949; Fortune My Foe, 1950; The Guardsman, 1950; Captain Brassbound’s Conversion, 1950; Medea, 1950; Henry IV, 1950; Marco Millions, 1950; Richard II, 1951; Pygmalion, 1951; The Madwoman of Chaillot, 1951; The Admirable Crichton, 1952; The Winslow Boy, 1952; Macbeth, 1952; The Wild Duck, 1953; The School for Wives, 1956; and The Innocent, 1957.

Series also contains 8 sketchbooks of costume designs for the following Hart House productions: The Internal Machine, 1946; Othello, 1949; Medea, 1950; Richard II, 1951; School for Wives, 1956; Hamlet, [n.d.]; and King Lear, [n.d.].

This accession consists of the personal records of Marion Dorothy Walker. The records document Ms. Walker’s activities as a production assistant for Hart House Theatre, as a professor in the University of Toronto Department of Fine Art and as a creative writer. Types of records include: personal correspondence, manuscripts, theatre programmes, playbills, lecture notes, research notes, scrapbooks, costume designs, stage designs, photographs and slides. This accession is arranged in the following 5 series:

Series 1: Early Biographical Information
Series 2: Personal Correspondence
Series 3: Hart House Theatre
Series 4: Department of Fine Art
Series 5: Fiction

The series documents Ms. Walker’s creative writing and includes correspondence with publishers, research notes, as well as drafts of short stories and poems.

Between 1957 and 1985, Marion Walker was a professor in the history of stage and costume design in the Department of Fine Art and its Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama. In this capacity, she taught Stage Design (FAS 333Y) and 18th Century Stage Design (FAS 435). She also assisted in the staging of the Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama’s 1974 productions of Marsh Hay and T’is a Pity She’s a Whore.

The records in this series document Ms. Walker’s teaching and research activities in the Department of Fine Art. The textual records mainly consist of subject files containing research and lectures notes. Topics covered include: correspondence, Baroque theatre, Ferdinando Bibiena, Comedia dell’ Arte, Elizabethan theatre, Fratelli Galliari, Greek theatre, Filippo Juvarra, Renaissance theatre, opera, research grants and Wagner’s The Ring. Also included is a scrapbook commemorating Ms. Walker’s retirement from the Department in 1985.

This series also consists of approximately 130 slides used to teach the History of Stage and 18th Century Stage Design. Subjects include the stage designs of Marsh Hay, Ferdinando Bibiena, Filippo Juvarra, Fratelli Gallieri and Pietro Gonzaga.

Also included are 10 stage plans created by Ms. Walker for the Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama’s 1974 productions of Marsh Hay and T’is a Pity She’s a Whore.

The series also contains one scrapbook of costume designs for the Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama’s production of Fuente Ovejuna (The Sheep Well), [n.d.].

This series consists of chronologically arranged, incoming personal correspondence, documenting Ms. Walker’s personal life from 1936 to 1998. Correspondents include family, friends, Hart House Theatre colleagues, sorority sisters and fine art students. Major correspondents are: Burgon Bickersteth, Pat Carson, Norman Endicott, Robert Gill and James Reaney. The letters, mostly written in the 1950’s, document Ms. Walker’s friendships, romances, interest in theatre, and travels throughout Europe.

The records in this series provide biographical information on Marion Walker’s early life, 1921-1942. Series includes 7 photographs. Subjects are: 5 portraits of Marion Walker; the Phi Beta sorority, 1940; and the University College graduating class, 1942. Also included is a scrapbook of newspaper clippings concerning Ms. Walker’s amateur golfing activities, 1937-1941.