Collins, Fletcher, Jr. 1906–2005

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born November 19, 1906, in Pittsburgh, PA (some sources say Cleveland, OH); died of pneumonia May 6, 2005, in Staunton, VA. Educator, musician, and author. A scholar of medieval and Renaissance dramas and music, Collins was professor emeritus of theater at Mary Baldwin College, cultural laureate of the state of Virginia, and founder of two amateur theaters. During his long and energetic life, Collins enjoyed a diverse range of experiences. While growing up in Cleveland, for example, he was a batboy for the Indians. He later attended Yale University, where he earned a Ph.B. in 1928 and, after teaching at Montclair State College for two years, a Ph.D. in 1934. The idealistic Collins then moved to West Virginia, where he participated in an experimental farming and arts community. Afterwards, he returned to teaching and was director of music and drama at the Arthurdale Community School in West Virginia from 1934 to 1936. He then taught English and drama at Elon College in North Carolina until 1942. While at Elon, he and his wife, Margaret, founded the Little Chapel Theater, and during this time Collins also traveled throughout the area, gathering folksongs, which he performed on his guitar and violin. Later, he donated his record of rural folk songs to the Library of Congress. In addition to folk music, he was interested in medieval music and drama. Collins was a scholar of theater ranging from Shakespearean plays to the works of the Irish poet and dramatist William Butler Yeats. During World War II, Collins was employed as an organizational manager for Fairchild Aircraft in North Carolina and then the Republic Aviation Corp. in Long Island. He returned to the South after the war and accepted a teaching position at Mary Baldwin College in 1947. He remained at the college for many years, becoming a professor of dramatic arts in 1950 and retiring in 1978. During this time, he founded the performing arts group Theater Wagon, Inc. in 1965, co-producing performances with his wife. Collins's fascination with medieval and Renaissance theater led to several notable projects, including his work to recreate the twelfth-century drama about the first Easter titled Visitatio Sepulchri, which he later produced at the St. Benoit de Fleury abbey in France. The performance was filmed and won the 1981 Cine Golden Eagle Award and was a finalist at the American Film Festival; in 2004 it was made available on DVD. Collins believed that music, an important element of medieval and Renaissance dramas, should not be ignored in modern performances. This was the case with Shakespeare's plays, he asserted, and in order to rectify the problem of the music being left out of productions, he spent much of his life researching and gathering this information. His work was finally published in 2003 as Songs from Shakespeare's Repertory. During his career, he also produced other books, including The Production of Medieval Church Music-Drama (1972) and A Medieval Songbook: Troubadour and Trouvere (1982), the latter of which he edited with Roger Harmon and Robert Francis Cook. In 2004 he produced a CD-ROM titled Words for Music Perhaps, which includes original songs composed to accompany the works of Yeats. An indefatigable worker whose enthusiasm spread to his students and colleagues, Collins was honored several times for his contributions to theater. In addition to being named cultural laureate of the state of Virginia in 1981, the fine arts building at Mary Baldwin College was named in his honor in 1983, and in 1997 he and his wife were presented with the college's Algernon Sydney Sullivan Non-Student Award.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Washington Post, May 12, 2005, p. B7.

ONLINE

MBC News Online, http://www.mbc.edu/news/ (May 6, 2005).