Armina Marshall

Armina Marshall (1895-1991) was a playwright and actress, and the first co-director of New York's Theatre Guild.

Early life and education Marshall was born in 1895 and her father was a sheriff.

Marshall was instrumental in bringing the Theatre Guild to new audiences, directing Theater Guild on the Air for eight years on the radio, as well as The U.S. Steel Hour for eight years on television. Marshall and her co-producers won a Tony Award for Best Play in 1958 for the production of Sunrise At Campobello. She later went on to be a producer at the Theater Guild. The Theater Guild's production of Oklahoma in 1943 was said to have "transformed the face of American musical theater."

Along with her husband, Marshall founded and operated the Westport Country Playhouse in 1930 which did "New York plays" for a Connecticut audience. They operated the theater continuously, except for a small break during WWII, until 1959.

At age 83, Marshall continued to work at the Guild office, "reading scripts, signing checks, supervising their travel agency which arranges theater and opera tickets for Theatre Guild subscribers travelling abroad and keeping an astute eye on current productions".