{{Short description|American playwright and theatrical producer (1887–1959)}} thumb|upright|Theresa Helburn '''Theresa Helburn''' (January 12, 1887 – August 18, 1959)<ref name=IBDB>[https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/theresa-helburn-6190 "Theresa Helburn"], Internet Broadway Database, accessed August 25, 2019</ref> was an American playwright and theatrical producer best known for her work as a co-founder and producer of New York's Theatre Guild from 1919 to the 1950s.
==Early life== thumb|upright|Helburn at the laying of the cornerstone of the Guild Theatre in 1924 Helburn was born in New York City to Julius Helburn, a leather merchant, and Hannah ''née'' Peyser, who established her own experimental elementary school. She attended the Horace Mann School and Winsor School in Boston before graduating from Bryn Mawr College in 1908. There she was active in theatre. She then studied playwriting at Radcliffe College and at the Sorbonne.
==Career== She then taught theatre and wrote drama criticism.<ref name=JWA>Frank, Glenda. [http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/helburn-theresa "Theresa Helburn"], ''Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia'', March 1, 2009, Jewish Women's Archive, accessed August 30, 2017</ref>
On 16 January 1918, her play, ''Enter the Hero'' was first produced by the St. Francis Little Theatre Players, in San Francisco.<ref name="enterherocomedyi00helb">{{cite book |last1=Helburn |first1=Theresa |title=Enter the hero; a comedy in one act |date=1918 |publisher=E. Arens |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/enterherocomedyi00helb}}</ref>
By September 1918, the first of her own plays was produced on Broadway,<ref name=IBDB/> ''Crops and Croppers'' at the Belmont Theatre,<ref name="nytimes/1918/september-lineup">{{cite news |title=THE SEPTEMBER LINE-UP |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1918/08/25/archives/the-september-lineup.html |access-date=14 December 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=Aug 25, 1918}}</ref> later published as ''Allison Makes Hay'', in 1919.<ref name="allisonmakeshay00helbgoog">{{cite book |last1=Helburn |first1=Theresa |title=Allison Makes Hay: A Comedy in Three Acts |date=1919 |publisher=Walter H. Baker & Company |url=https://archive.org/details/allisonmakeshay00helbgoog |access-date=14 December 2025 |language=English}}</ref>
==Theatre Guild and later years== [[File:Theresa Helburn by Marion H. Beckett, 1922, oil on canvas, from the National Portrait Gallery - NPG-NPG 73 30Helburn-000001.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Portrait of Helburn by Marion H. Beckett (1922)]] Helburn was a co-founder of the Theatre Guild in 1919. There she acted first as a literary manager, reviewing scripts, then as casting director, and later became co-producer with Lawrence Langner.<ref name="Special Collections">[http://www.brynmawr.edu/library/speccoll/guides/helburn/helburn.shtml "Theresa Helburn Theater Collection"], Bryn Mawr College, accessed August 30, 2017</ref> The Guild brought original dramas from European and American playwrights, such as George Bernard Shaw and Eugene O'Neill, to the Broadway stage, and established relationships with such notable actors as Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne,<ref name="Special Collections"/> whom Helburn cast together for the first time in 1924.<ref name=JWA/> In 1925, just six years after the establishment of the production company, Helburn presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Guild Theatre (now August Wilson Theatre).<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1924/12/03/archives/gov-smith-lays-stone-for-guild-recalls-theatrical-conditions-of-his.html "Gov. Smith Lays Stone for Guild; Recalls Theatrical Conditions of His Boyhood at New Theatre in West 52d Street"]. The New York Times. December 3, 1924. Retrieved February 28, 2022.</ref> She also supported new plays and playwrights in smaller theatres.<ref name=JWA/> Some of Helburn's Broadway productions in the 1930s included ''Mourning Becomes Electra'' (1931) and ''The Philadelphia Story'' (1939).<ref name=IBDB/> In the early 1930s, she also worked briefly in Hollywood, and she maintained strong ties with the film and television industries until the time of her death.<ref name="Special Collections"/> Later, for the Guild, she came up with the concept to turn the Guild's earlier production of ''Green Grow the Lilacs'' into a musical, which became ''Oklahoma!''<ref>Nolan, pp. 1–25</ref> Likewise, the Guild had produced ''Liliom'', which was later adapted as ''Carousel''.<ref>Nolan, p. 153</ref> Other important Broadway productions included ''The Iceman Cometh'' (1946), ''Come Back, Little Sheba'' (1950), ''Picnic'' (1953) and ''The Trip to Bountiful'' (1953).<ref name=IBDB/>
==Personal life== In 1922, she married<ref name=JWA/> John Baker Opdycke (1878-1956),<ref name="nytimes/opdycke-dead">{{cite news |title=John B. Opdycke, Writer, Educator; Former Department Head at Haaren High Dead--Was Foreign Correspondent |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1956/11/05/archives/john-b-opdycke-writer-educator-former-department-head-at-haaren.html |access-date=14 December 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=Nov 5, 1956 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20251214214642/https://www.nytimes.com/1956/11/05/archives/john-b-opdycke-writer-educator-former-department-head-at-haaren.html |archive-date=14 December 2025}}</ref> a "teacher and author of books on commercial English".<ref name="books/7hI2AQAAIAAJ">{{cite book |last1=Opdycke |first1=John Baker |title=Get it Right!: A Cyclopedia of Correct English Usage |date=1935 |publisher=Funk & Wagnalls |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7hI2AQAAIAAJ |language=en}}</ref><ref name="nytimes/theresa-helburn-dead">{{cite news |title=Theresa Helburn Is Dead at 72; Long a Partner in Theatre Guild; Producer Sent Rodgers Script He Turned Into 'Oklahoma!' ---Set Up Freedom Award |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1959/08/19/archives/theresa-helburn-is-dead-at-72-long-a-partner-in-theatre-guild.html |access-date=14 December 2025 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20251214204239/https://www.nytimes.com/1959/08/19/archives/theresa-helburn-is-dead-at-72-long-a-partner-in-theatre-guild.html |archive-date=14 December 2025 |agency=Special to The New York Times |date=Aug 19, 1959 |quote=co-administrator and director of the Guild with Lawrence Langner and his wife, Armina Marshall}}</ref> Opdycke also wrote poetry under the pen name of "Oliver Opdyke".<ref name="books/cMGXNv8gh9AC">{{cite book |title=The Bookfellow Poetry Annual: Presenting the Work of Members of the Order of Bookfellows |date=1944 |publisher=Order of Bookfellows |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cMGXNv8gh9AC&q=OLIVER%20OPDYKE |access-date=14 December 2025 |language=en}}</ref> They had no children.<ref name="nytimes/theresa-helburn-dead"/>
In August 1959, Helburn died at age 72 at Norwalk, Connecticut.<ref name=JWA/> A collection of theatrical ephemera, photographs and writings relating to Helburn's life and to the Guild is housed at Bryn Mawr College.<ref name="Special Collections"/> She wrote an unfinished memoir, published posthumously in 1960, ''A wayward quest. The autobiography of Theresa Helburn'', by Little, Brown.<ref name="Helburn/Autobiography">{{cite book |last1=Helburn |first1=Theresa |title=A Wayward Quest. The Autobiography of Theresa Helburn, Etc. [With Plates Including Portraits.]. |date=1960 |publisher=Little, Brown |location=Boston |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BOiREQAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Sources== *Nolan, Frederick. ''The Sound of Their Music: The Story of Rodgers and Hammerstein''. New York: Applause Books, 2002, {{ISBN|1-55783-473-3}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Theresa Helburn}} *[https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/helburn-theresa-1887-1959 Theresa Helburn] - encyclopedia.com *{{cite web |title=Letter from Theodore Roosevelt to John B. Opdycke |url=https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/digital-library/o249828/ |website=Theodore Roosevelt Center <!-- |access-date=14 December 2025 -->}}
'''Papers''' * Theresa Helburn Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
'''Works''' * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Theresa Helburn}} * {{Librivox author |id=2773}} *[https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Opdycke%2C+John+B.+%28John+Baker%29%2C+1878-1956%22 creator:"Opdycke, John B. (John Baker), 1878-1956"] - archive.org *[https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=opdycke,%20john%20b.%20(john%20baker),%201878-1956 Opdycke, John B. (John Baker), 1878-1956] - The Online Books Page *[https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL2211668A/John_B._Opdycke John B. Opdycke] - openlibrary.org *[https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL7546621A/John_Baker_Opdycke John Baker Opdycke] - openlibrary.org
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Helburn, Theresa}} Category:1887 births Category:1959 deaths Category:American theatre directors Category:American women theatre directors Category:American women dramatists and playwrights Category:Bryn Mawr College alumni Category:The New School faculty Category:Jewish American dramatists and playwrights