Jasper Deeter and the Hedgerow Theatre

[AITH OPENING THEME]

[00:15] Welcome back to Adventures in Theater History! Today, we are going be looking at one of the most interesting and influential figures in this city’s theater history, the actor, director and teacher Jasper Deeter, who in the mid-20th Century founded and led the tiny but highly influential Hedgerow Theatre Company, in Rose Valley, Delaware County, a small suburban enclave to the southwest of the city of Philadelphia. We have mentioned Deeter and the Hedgerow quite a few times over the course of many of our special summer episodes recently, so I thought we should finally take a close-up view of it. The Hedgerow is, in fact, quite historic! It is the oldest continuously operating theater company in the Philadelphia area, and was founded a little over 99 years ago, in April of 1923. Their hundredth anniversary season is coming up next year. 

And once again, as we did in our visit to the Paul Robeson House, I’m pleased to announce we are going to take this podcast right to the place itself! At the conclusion of this episode, we are going to take an expertly guided tour of the historic theater’s grounds, its buildings, and its backstage areas. But before we do that, to set the scene, let’s hear an interview I recently had with Professor Barry Witham, one of the most distinguished biographers of Jasper Deeter. [01:45]

[Interview with Barry Witham - NOTE: INTERVIEW NOT YET TRANSCRIBED]

 So, now, let’s go on a trip. Let’s take a visit to Rose Valley. Just the other morning, I followed up on a very kind invitation of Marcie Bramucci, who is the current Executive Artistic Director of the Hedgerow Theatre Company, to give me (and all of you) and exclusive guided tour of the building and the grounds of the Hedgerow, and to see the legacy that Jasper Deeter left behind, and how it has been shaped by all its other many theater artists and supporters over the years. 

Marcie and I met and talked first at the longtime Main House of the theater at 146 Rose Valley Rd., where they have their administrative offices and living quarters. Then we got in the car and took the short trip down the road to the historic old theater itself, in the former mill building by the Vernon Run, a small stream that eventually flows down into Ridley Creek. Here we go. [02.54]

[Tour with Marcie Bramucci here - NOTE: INTERVIEW NOT YET TRANSCRIBED]

Well that was a great privilege, both to talk to Barry and to Marcie, and to get a chance to bring you all along with us. I thank both of our kind friends today, once again, for their generous gift of their time and their expertise. If you’re in the area this fall and spring, don’t miss the chance to visit the theater itself and take in a performance. The theater’s website is www.hedgerowtheatre.org - where you will find all their season schedules and how to contact their lovely and their very helpful box office staff..  

Oh, and I found out one more thing during my conversation with Marcie, the answer to Barry Witham’s question about what happened to all the boxes of old documents and archival materials and other ephemera about Jasper Deeter and the Hedgerow that he found in the back closet. In 2016 all of them, and more besides, were safely transferred to the collection of the University of Pennsylvania Library’s Kislak Center for Special Collections. Altogether, there are 59.5 linear feet (or 67 boxes) of materials, and they can be accessed there by researchers and historians.

I hope to do more on-site visits of historic Philadelphia theaters and other locales in the future, when we get a chance. Thanks for listening today, thanks for supporting the podcast and thanks for supporting our ongoing mission. Keep on subscribing and following our podcast, check us out on Patreon, as well as our social media feeds on Facebook and Twitter. Very soon - very soon - we will have an announcement about our upcoming Season Two! Big things are coming up. Our theme music and our sound engineering, once again, are by Christopher Mark Colucci. Thanks for coming along on another Adventure in Theater History: Philadelphia. [05:03]

[AITH END THEME]