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An Ohio Repertoire-Tent Show Family: The Kinsey Komedy Kompany and the Madge Kinsey Players, 1881-1951

Bell, Charles Harris, III
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566463066598908

Abstract Details

1978, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, Theatre.
The Kinsey Komedy Kompany (1881-1941) and the Madge Kinsey Players (1935-1951) were family owned and operated repertoire-tent show companies, and were part of the rich tradition of provincial theatre in America. Like all itinerant players, their operations were rooted in the culture and traditions of the ordinary people to which they played. Historically, the success of the Kinsey family can be traced to the family's patriarch, Morris L. Kinsey, a veteran stock actor who organized the Kinsey Komedy Kompany in 1881 as a traveling stock company in Iowa. The show first toured Ohio in 1896 with M. L. Kinsey, his wife, Beth, and their two daughters, Madge and Kathryn. M. L. Kinsey died in 1907, but through his leadership and managerial practices, carried on by three generations of Kinsey family, his modest itinerant acting company evolved into an entertainment institution in Ohio. The oldest daughter, Madge April Kinsey, began her career in her father's arms as "Baby Madge" and after thirty years of performing in northern Ohio she was dubbed "Ohio's Crossroads Queen" by the Cleveland Press. Her company, the Madge Kinsey Players, carried out the family's trouping tradition until 1951. The Kinsey's first tour under tent was in 1901. The success of the canvas operations in the hinterland of Ohio began a dual identity for the family show: during the winter they continued touring inter-state permanent theatres as stock companies playing indefinite stands with a change of bill weekly; during the summer season they played Ohio exclusively as repertoire-tent shows in week long stands with a change of bill nightly. This annual cycle continued in times of both economic prosperity and depression through constant adaptation to the theatrical environment. The Kinsey family and their players supplied the people's demand for popular entertainment for seven decades. When the Madge Kinsey Players ended their tour in 1951, it was the end of the repertoire-tent era in Ohio.
Harold Obee (Advisor)
Theater

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Bell, III, C. H. (1978). An Ohio Repertoire-Tent Show Family: The Kinsey Komedy Kompany and the Madge Kinsey Players, 1881-1951 [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566463066598908

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Bell, III, Charles. An Ohio Repertoire-Tent Show Family: The Kinsey Komedy Kompany and the Madge Kinsey Players, 1881-1951. 1978. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566463066598908.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Bell, III, Charles. "An Ohio Repertoire-Tent Show Family: The Kinsey Komedy Kompany and the Madge Kinsey Players, 1881-1951." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 1978. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1566463066598908

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1566463066598908
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