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SEPTEMBER 1955    55

(Linda) Urmy. "People don't think you can act if you're a schoolteacher," she told Peter Kihss (New York World-Telegram, March 25, 1941), "but teaching is something I intend to keep up . . . The arrangement is only possible because I have such an understanding headmistress. It's a good thing, too, my husband likes the theatre." She told Helen Ormsbee (New York Herald Tribune, March 6, 1949): "I could apply only for parts in early fall productions that would be rehearsing before school opened, and I always had to have permission from the school. If the play toured a few weeks before coming to New York I got a substitute to teach my classes."

Following appearances in several plays which had brief runs, she played in Philip Barry's fantasy Foolish Nation, starring Tallulah Bankhead and Donald Cook, which opened at the Martin Beck Theatre on March 14, 1945 and ran for 103 performances. "Mildred Dunnock shines as an actress rival of Sophie, giving as good as she receives in an encounter with polite savagery," wrote E. C. Sherburne in the Christian Science Monitor (March 14, 1945).

Her next stage role was as Madame Tsai, the Chinese mother in Lute Song, which had been adapted from the Chinese by Sidney Howard and Will Irwin, and which starred Mary Martin. It played 142 performances at the Plymouth Theatre, after opening on February 6, 1946. The play, based on the original Pi-Pa-Ki, by Kao-Tong-Kia, has for centuries occupied somewhat the same position on the Chinese stage as Hamlet in the English theatre. Miss Dunnock's performance was described as "excellent" by Howard Barnes (New York Herald Tribune, February 7, 1946). 

Her next Broadway role was as the half-crazed Lavinia, mother of the vicious Hubbard brood in Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest, which opened on November 20, 1946 at the Fulton Theatre. William Hawkins wrote in the New York World-Telegram (November 21, 1946): "Mildred Dunnock does a magnificent job of sustaining the role of the semi-hysterical Lavinia." The play ran for 182 performances.

In Rose Franken's play The Hallams, which opened on March 4, 1948 at the Booth Theatre, Miss Dunnock played the unpleasant Etta Hallam, and her characterization was praised, but the play closed after twelve performances. In the role of Williams, a faithful theatre maid, Miss Dunnock "gave a capital performance" in Ruth Gordon's "valentine" to the theatre world of the 1890's, but this play, The Leading Lady, closed a week after its opening on October 18, 1948.

Her longest Broadway engagement was for 742 performances in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman which opened at the Morosco Theatre on February 10, 1949, and which won the Pulitzer Prize, the New York Drama Critics Circle award, and several other awards. "Mildred Dunnock gives the performance of her career," wrote Brooks Atkinson (New York Times, February 11, 1949) "as the wife and mother - plain of speech but indomitable in spirit." She played the same role opposite Frederic March in the Stanley Kramer Company motion picture production, presented by Columbia Pictures in December 1951. "As the long-suffering wife," commented Bosley Crowther, (New York Times, December 21, 1951), "Mildred Dunnock is simply superb, as she was on the stage [in her] portrayal of a woman who bears the agony of seeing her sons and husband turn out failures."

[[image - photo of Mildred Dunnock]]
[[credit]] Marcus Blechman [[/credit]]
[[caption]] MILDRED DUNNOCK [[/caption]]

Under José Quintero's direction, Miss Dunnock appeared in Jane Bowles' play, In the Summer House, which starred Judith Anderson and opened on December 29, 1953 at the Playhouse Theatre. It drew "mixed" reviews, but the critics were unanimous in acclaiming Miss Anderson and Miss Dunnock. "Miss Dunnock is superb . . . she plays the more crucial scenes with unerring insight. it is beautiful work," commented Brooks Atkinson (New York Times, December 30, 1953). "She does her finest job of acting," wrote William Hawkins (New York World-Telegram and Sun, December 30, 1953), "as the widow and weakling who becomes quite grand over a bottle. It is honest, fleet and subtle performing." The play closed after fifty-five performances.

Although Miss Dunnock has often played the roles of pathetic, or timorous ladies, she broke away from type in her current role of Big Mama in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, at the Morosco Theatre. Walter Kerr wrote in the New York Herald Tribune (March 25, 1955): "Mildred Dunnock is startingly fine in an unfamiliar sort of role: the brash, gravel-voiced outspoken matron."

She has been active in the American National Theatre and Academy (ANTA) productions, appearing for two weeks in 1950 and 1951 in Peer Gynt, Paul Green's adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen play, produced by Cheryl Crawford. She also appeared in The Wild Duck at the City Center, playing the role of Gina. She is a member of the Actors' Studio.
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