Just as the Roaring Twenties roared into Philadelphia, 19 members of Philadelphia’s Falls Methodist Church decided to put on a play. They called their theater company the.” By all accounts, it was a tremendous success. Bonnets off to them, now known as theThat play marked the first season of the amateur, all-volunteer acting group now celebrating its 100th season and truly living the theater motto that the show must go on.
At first, the group staged shows wherever they could get a stage until, in 1932, they were offered the use of the Old Academy, a building erected in 1819 as a schoolhouse on Indian Queen Lane in East Falls. Later, they also acquired the Carfax Building next door, which had housed the Young Men’s Association., the actress who became Princess Grace of Monaco? She got her start at the Old Academy performing in six plays between the ages of 11 and 14.
,” joined the Old Academy Players. “I’m playing a witch, which is what I always wanted to do. It was on my bucket list to be a witch,” she said. “But we’re not dressed like witches. We’re dressed like bag ladies.” Gowling, who started there in her 20s, said she was first cast in ingénue roles, including her first role in “.” “I’m still the ingénue to myself,” she said with a laugh.
She can’t remember what part she played, but she remembered being in the cast when Grace Kelly, then Princess Grace, returned to the Old Academy to see a production. “I had eye contact with her, and she was smiling.”its 530th production. Childs describes it as the bard’s greatest hits, including famous scenes, jokes, insults, and songs. A cast of 29, the largest in the company’s history, ranges in age from 8 to Freda Gowling’s 88.