A Brief History of the Mary Moody Northen Theater
The history of the Mary Moody Northen Theater at St. Edward's University begins with the arrival of Edward Mangum in 1965. Mangum began work as a drama teacher and director at a time when very few drama courses were offered. For several years prior to Mangum’s arrival, Brother Dunstan Bowles, a passionate theater lover and professor of Speech and English Literature, had staged a number of productions, including The Death of a Salesman and The Skin of Our Teeth. Alongside Brother Dunstan, Mangum expanded the program so that by 1970, dozens of students contributed to multiple major and student-directed productions each season, and a new major in Theater Arts began to be offered at SEU. A relationship with Actor’s Equity Association dating from this period allowed for professional actors, from both stage and screen, to join each production.
As early as 1966, Mangum and Brother Dunstan had felt the need for a new facility in which to stage the productions of the growing theater department. Brother Dunstan argued for a traditional proscenium stage, which he believed would offer students more directly applicable professional experience. Mangum advocated for an arena stage, which he felt made a better case for the unique advantages of theater over television:
“Arena staging, I believe, is also the answer to the competition of television. The TV screen is a smaller, more intimate version of the motion-picture screen. Arena is a smaller, more intimate version of the proscenium stage. TV is rapidly taking the place of the fading motion-picture palaces. I believe arena theatres can take the place of the dwindling proscenium theatres. All we have to do to combat TV is to produce exciting plays so well that our contour-chair-bound friends can no longer sit placidly at home.”
Ultimately, Mangum prevailed, and the theater was designed with an arena stage, thanks in large part to the munificence of Mary Moody Northen and the Moody Foundation.
Mary Moody Northen was the daughter of William and Libby Moody. Mr. Moody had amassed a fortune through a number of companies he controlled, including the American National Insurance Company, and he and his wife founded the Moody Foundation to manage their estates. William Moody died in 1954, the same year as the passing of Edwin Northen, Mary’s husband. Mary assumed control of the Moody Foundation, among many other board chairmanships, and was a major benefactor to SEU, as well as the larger Austin and Galveston communities.
Mary Moody Northen provided funding for the theater through the Moody Foundation, and a group of drama students broke ground on the new theater in March, 1970. In March, 1972, Edward Mangum staged the inaugural production of the new theater, Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie?, starring William Shatner.