Alice Henson Ernst

Alice Henson Ernst (September 3, 1880 – February 12, 1980) was an American playwright, professor and author. She conducted anthropological work among the Native Americans in Oregon. Ernst was also well-known for her history and research of pioneer theater in the northwest. Ernst taught English and drama at the University of Washington and the University of Oregon.

Biography

Alice Henson was born in Washburne, Maine. She grew up as an only child in Port Angeles, Washington, where her mother ran a restaurant after her father, a shoemaker, left the family to pursue business in other parts of Washington. She earned a bachelors of arts, magna cum laude, from the University of Washington (UW) in 1912, and then went on to receive her master's degree in 1913. from 1924 to 1950. She also taught drama at UO. Between 1952 and 1953, she had a research grant at UO and also did freelance writing. She published her research on Native Americans and mask-making and rituals using the masks in a paper called "Masks of the Northwest Coast". The La Grande Observer called her an authority on "northwest Indians". The Wolf Ritual of the Northwest Coast (1948) was published using research from interviews of Native Americans in the northwest and on Vancouver Island.

Ernst was also interested in "primitive theater" and wrote about early theater in the Pacific northwest in Trouping in the Oregon Country (1961).

Ernst was a member of Beta Sigma Phi, and the Eugene chapter of the National League of American Pen Women (NLAPW). She was also a charter member of the Eugene Very Little Theatre (VLT).

Writings

Ernst's first plays were written in at Radcliffe in George Pierce Baker's "47 Workshop". Spring Sluicing takes place in the northwest and Alaska. Spring Sluicing was published in Goin' Home, And Other Plays of the 1927 Contest (1929). Later, it was published again in the collection, High Country (1935), which also contained other plays written by Ernst. The Salt Lake Tribune wrote that Ernst's plays "possess strong dramatic power".

She published "Dramatic Trails of the Northwest" in Theatre Arts Magazine in 1927. Also in 1930, OU's Guild Theatre debuted her play, Afternoon of a Nymph. In 1932, the Portland Civic Theatre performed Welcome Stranger. The Wooden Wife takes place in a Native American dwelling. The play won first place at the Northwest Writers' Conference.

In 1938, she published another collection of plays, Backstage in Xanadu, which included illustrations by Constance Cole. The book included the plays Cloistered Calm, Welcome Stranger, Nightingale and Afternoon of a Nymph. Ernst's poetry appeared in the anthology, Mid-Country: Writings From the Heart of America (1945). Her play, Way Out There, a "comic-drama", set in the Oregon of the 1800s, was performed at VLT in 1946.

Ernst's history of theater in Oregon, Trouping in the Oregon Country (1961), was considered "enjoyable" by historian, Kenneth L. Holmes, of the Eugene Guard. The book won first place from the Oregon Press Women (OPW). The book was a culmination of a decade's worth of research.

Publications