¿Perry, Antoinette1888╨1946actor and directorBorn in Denver on June 27, 1888, Mary Antoinette Perry was educated at Wolcott╒s School in her native city. In her youth she frequently traveled in summer with an aunt and uncle who were touring actors. She made her theatrical debut in Mrs. Temple╒s Telegram at Powers╒ Theatre, Chicago, in June 1905; later that year she made her New York debut in the same play at the Madison Square Theatre. Over the next four years she appeared in Lady Jim, 1906, David Belasco╒s The Music Master, 1906, A Grand Army Man, 1907, and again in The Music Master, 1908. In November 1909 she married Frank W. Frueauff, a Denver businessman with whom she settled in New York City. During the marriage her connection with the theater was limited to aiding talented young people, notably composer Deems Taylor. Her husband died in 1922, and in 1924 she returned to the stage in Zona Gale╒s Mr. Pitt, with Walter Huston. Subsequently she appeared in Minick, 1924, The Dunce Boy, 1925, Engaged, 1925, Caught, 1925, The Masque of Venice, 1926, The Ladder, 1926, and Electra, 1927. In 1928 Perry turned to directing, making her debut in that field with Goin╒ Home, at the Hudson Theatre in August of that year. Preston Sturges╒s Strictly Dishonorable, which opened on Broadway in September 1929 and ran for 557 performances, was her first great directorial success. Working with producer Brock Pemberton, with whom she shared a professional and personal alliance for two decades, she subsequently directed such plays as Divorce Me Dear, 1931, Christopher Comes Across, Personal Appearance, 1934, Ceiling Zero, 1935, Red Harvest, 1937, Clare Booth Luce╒s Kiss the Boys Goodbye, 1938, Lady in Waiting, 1940, Cuckoos on the Hearth, 1941, Janie, 1942, Pillar to Post, 1943, and the Pulitzer Prize╨winning Harvey, 1944. She also staged an American Theatre Wing production of The Barretts of Wimpole Street, with Katharine Cornell, for Allied military audiences in Europe in 1944╨1945. She served as chairman of the committee of the Apprentice Theatre of the American Theatre Council in 1937╨1939, and in 1941 she was president of the Experimental Theatre of the Actors Equity Association. She was a founder of the American Theatre Wing, which operated the well known Stage Door Canteens in several cities and otherwise provided hospitality and entertainment for servicemen, and was its chairman from 1941 to 1944. She died in New York City on June 28, 1946. In 1947 the American Theatre Wing established the annual Antoinette Perry Awards╤known as Tony Awards╤for distinguished theatrical performance, direction, production, design, composition, and other accomplishments on the New York stage. 6styl ` B ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ 0 !I !I " !I # !I 4 !I µ !I ε !I !I !I !I . !I C !I S !I Ä !I ▐ ù !I Ü !I ó !I ╓ !I ▄ !I Σ !I ± !I ∙ !I !I !I !I !I * !I 2 !I < !I H !I O !I Y 5¬ Z !I í !I ½ !I ε !I !I !I ! !I ( !I A !I C !I V !I ] !I j !I r !I } !I ÿ !I ¡ !I ╡ !I ─ !I ╠ !I ß !I Φ !I ε !I ⌡ !I !I + !I 1 !I q !I Å !I û !I ▐ º !I .link ` HYPR Ä ùHYPR û º
