Dorothy Somerset

Dorothy Somerset was a Radcliffe College graduate, Somerset had performed with the Harvard Dramatic Society, studied theatre in England, directed the annual productions of the UBC University Players’ Club — the first all-student drama society in Canada — and made guest appearances with the professional British Guild Players. Dorothy was the leading lady of the Vancouver Little Theatre in the 1920s when she began her association with UBC, teaching French. She then became the first permanent staff member of UBC’s Dept. of Extension in 1937, where she served as the supervisor of drama for the next 20 years. Within two years at the Dept. of Extension, Somerset had established an impressive list of theatre services , including a play-lending library, short drama courses, a correspondence course, an evening class in playwriting and a radio series called the University Drama School. She also established the department’s Summer School of the Theatre, the first important step in the development of drama courses on campus. The school, first held in 1938, continued until its activities merged into the Theatre Department in 1964. In 1951, Somerset’s department was given the old Totem Coffee Bar to convert into a theatre for academic work in dramatics. A year later, it opened as the first Frederic Wood Theatre — Vancouver’s only legitimate theatrical venue at the time. Somerset applied to the UBC Senate for a separate theatre department, which was approved in 1958, and she was appointed as the Chair. UBC awarded Somerset with an honorary degree in 1965. She died on Aug. 11, 1991