Alvina Krause
| Alvina Krause | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Alvina Eloise Krause January 28, 1893 New Lisbon, Wisconsin |
| Died | December 31, 1981 (aged 88) Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania |
| Cause of death | heart failure |
| Resting place |
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| Monuments |
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| Residence |
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| Education |
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| Occupation | acting teacher |
| Title | Professor emeritus |
| Partner(s) | Lucy McCammon (?-1981) |
| Parent(s) |
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| Relatives | 4 older siblings |
| Awards | honorary doctorate, Doane College, 1969 |
| Notes | |
Alvina Krause (January 28, 1893 – December 31, 1981) was an American drama teacher at Northwestern University, theatrical entrepreneur, "maker of stars", and director. Her students called her AK.
As a girl in rural Wisconsin she found a copy of Hamlet (one source says Doll's House), and was smitten with a love of dramatic literature, even though an older sister teased her for mispronouncing many of the words. As a high school senior, she dismissed her first marriage proposal, vowing to seek a career. After a stint at University of Wisconsin, she found her way to Evanston.
In her first year at the Cumnock school she was thrilled and intimated when the its founder (later professor at Northwestern) addressed the new class.
Miss Krause's life partner was her former student, Lucy McCammon (August 12, 1898–December 19, 1991), born to a family prominent in Springfield, Missouri. Lucy McCammon taught physical education at Bloomsburg State College (1926-1958). From 1971, the two women shared a house in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania.
After high school, she attended the Cumnock Oratorical School, 1914-1916. After graduation, she taught elocution and girls' athletics in high schools in Colorado and Springfield, Missouri.
She returned to Northwestern, earning a bachelor's degree in 1928. She taught drama and English at a high school in Seaside, Oregon, where some of her family lived then lived. She coached the girls' basketball team to a state championship. She taught drama for a year at Hamline University in St. Paul. Her student group from Hamline performed so well at a drama festival in Evanston, that Northwestern hired her.
In 1930, Northwestern appointed her an Instructor of Voice and Interpretation in the School of Speech. She earned a master's degree there in 1933; her master's thesis (A Study of Creative Imagination) purported to describe the creative process scientifically. Her principal duties were giving private lessons in voice and interpretation. Budget considerations led the School of Speech to discontinue private instruction in the early 1940s. She was appointed assistant professor in 1941, and developed a one-year course in acting. She expanded this to a three-year acting program, developing an approach still used at Northwestern and emulated elsewhere. In 1957 she was appointed Associate Professor.
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