George Savage Sr. (1904-1977)

From his Obituary

     George Milton Savage, Theater Arts: Los Angeles 1904-1977

 Professor Emeritus George Milton Savage, professional playwright and teacher.

     George's tradition was strongly rooted in the pioneer individuality and tenacity of the great Northwest.  His great grandfather led the first bank of settlers into Washington state, and his father was with the last wagon train to traverse the Oregon Trail from Missouri in 1885.  His father joined in the building of the state, and George was left in the care of his two grandmothers at home in Tacoma, where he developed a great love for literature.  He was sent to Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire and then on to the University of Washington.

     At the university he met the charming Gladys Ferrier, the daughter of Washington pioneers, from Aberdeen.  They were married in 1929. Upon receipt of his Master of Arts from the university, he moved to California to live with Glenn and Babette Hughes, his former teacher and playwright.  During this time he wrote numerous plays for amateur theatrical production, including the frequently produced one act called Little Prison, about some people trapped between floors in an elevator.

            At this time he elected to devote his life to writing and teaching instead of entering the commercial theater of New York's Broadway, despite the urging of his professional agent and friends.  He received his Ph.D. in American drama from the University of Washington.

     His skill and compassion in working with young writers was quickly recognized, and he was invited to join the faculty in 1935.  During his sixteen-year tenure, he continued his writing and founded the Tryout Theater in Seattle, where hundreds of new plays received their premiere productions

     In 1951 UCLA's young and vital Department of Theater Arts attracted Savage to Los Angeles, where he continued the theater-writing program begun by Kenneth Macgowan.  Under Savage's leadership, the Sunday night reading for full-length works became a tradition.  When the Macgowan Hall facility for the Department of Theater Arts was built in 1963, performance spaces were specifically designed to support the one-act play production program and the Sunday night readings.  At UCLA he assisted Samuel Goldwyn, Lucille Ball, and Donald Davis in establishing writing awards to stimulate and support talented students, and worked closely with many Los Angeles theaters in selecting and producing new plays.  He was a founding member of the board of Los Angeles Junior Programs and the Inner City Cultural Center.

     George received a Fullbright grant to teach at the University of Bristol, England in 1958 and was a visiting professor at the University of Iowa, the Idyllwild Arts Foundation, and the Dramatische Werkstatt in Salzburg, Austria.

     In 1962 he was elected to receive one of the American Theater's highest awards, the Margo Jones Award, for his support of new play programs.  The presentation was made at the White House.

     George was the author or coauthor of seventy-two plays. He collaborated with Edourar Peltret, Bill Noble, Zoe Schiller, Dorothy Burke, Dorothy Berrigan, Sophie Rosenstein, Gladys Charles, and, in recent years, with his son, George, Jr. At the time of his passing, he had three plays in progress and was involved in the rewriting of two others as a result of Los Angeles premieres by the Evergreen Stage Society.

     He retired from teaching at UCLA in 1971, although he continued to offer courses through University Extension whenever in Los Angeles for an extended stay. His retirement was marked by a reading of his play Verily I Do, written in collaboration with Gladys Charles.  UCLA had produced the play in the late 1940s, and members of the original cast and alumni gathered from across the nation to participate in the event.  Macgowan Hall's Ralph Freud Playhouse was filled with friends and fans of George Savage for the reading narrated by Ralph Freud and staged by Eddie Hearn.  Several years later, television star Buddy Ebsen, who had written several plays under George's guidance, presented a benefit performance to provide funding for the George Savage Playwriting Awards Fund.  Since its establishment, the fund has continued to grow with a steady stream of financial contributions from his admirers.

     His spirit and tone of support for new writers is captured in his description of the guidelines for the administration of the fund.  It is to be used to send novice playwrights to first-class plays they would otherwise have to miss; to hire babysitters to free those with children to have time alone for writing; to provide necessary script typing and copying services; and, of course, to provide recognition for good work and financial support for those in need.

     He worked with every kind of playwright and every kind of play that came along. He understood, even spoiled, playwrights.  He saw not only what was on paper but what was struggling to emerge from the writer's mind.  He would take a story, plot, or character and help it to flourish without imposing his own themes. There were no rules: he voiced no platitudes nor said the same thing to every writer--he just asked questions and listened.  He urged students to tell their story and see what happened.  He was frequently urged by various publishers to write a textbook for use in playwriting courses, but he felt that each play was unique and could not be subjected to even the broadest of theories or techniques.  Perhaps that is why one of his former students wrote, George encouraged so many of us and set us on our way.  Another wrote, We will miss the gentle Savage.

Walden P. Boyle, John R. Cauble, William W. Melnitz

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