Mary Aldis

Mary Aldis (1872-1949) was a key figure in the “little theater” movement. In 1911, Aldis constructed a playhouse from an old cottage on the grounds of her summer estate in Lake Forest, Illinois, a wealthy suburb of Chicago. During the 1910s she produced, composed, and acted in plays with her company the Lake Forest Players. Together with her husband, real estate developer Arthur Aldis, she provided financial support to numerous artistic ventures, including Poetry magazine and, in the summer of 1923, the Wharf Players in Provincetown, MA, a theater troupe that included Harry Kemp, Mary Heaton Vorse, Frank Shay, and others. According to Kemp's biographer, William Brevda, Aldis rescinded her patronage of the group after they held a wild party next to her Provincetown lodging and failed to invite her or any of the Players other wealthy patrons. Aldis's best-known one-act play is Mrs. Pat and the Law and her published works include Plays for Small Stages (1915), Flashlights (1916), a collection of poems, the novel Drift (1918), and No Curtain: Suggested Themes for Impromptu Plays (1935).