The Dartmouth Players (also called the Amateur Theatricals and the Dartmouth Dramatic Club) were the first student theater company at Dartmouth College. From their founding in the 1880s until 1925, the all-male student members of the Players performed all the roles in their productions themselves, including the women’s roles. In 1921, then-president of Dartmouth College, Ernest Martin Hopkins, raised concerns about female impersonation among the Players, fixating on one student in particular. James Harvey Zuckerman, a member of the Players, was gay, and Hopkins believed playing female roles onstage had created or contributed to Zuckerman’s homosexuality. Zuckerman was later expelled from the College, and the Players began casting women to play female roles in spring 1925. (For more information about Zuckerman’s story, check out this blog post and this podcast episode, both from Rauner Special Collections Library.)
The last show the Dartmouth Players performed as an all-male company was Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, a play known for its cross-dressing lead female character, in 1925. The Players also performed Twelfth Night in 1899. At the time, campus student newspaper the Dartmouth reported that it was the first Shakespeare play in many years performed by amateurs at the College. This exhibit explores both of these landmark performances.
This exhibit was curated, written, and designed by August Guszkowski as part of their 2022-2023 Digital Library Fellowship. Special thanks to Laura Braunstein, Val Werner, Morgan Swan, Lizzie Curran, Ryland Ianelli, and Laura Barrett for their help at every stage of this process.