20 Facts About Martha Allan

Marguerite Martha Allan was the founder of the Montreal Repertory Theatre and co-founder of the Dominion Drama Festival.

Martha Allan loathed amateur theatre, but her energies spearheaded the Canadian Little Theatre Movement at a time when live theatre in Montreal and across Canada was being threatened by the rapid expansion of the American-influenced movie theater.

At the annual Dominion Drama Festival the Martha Allan Trophy is awarded in her memory for the best visual performance.

Martha Allan wrote three plays: What Fools We Mortals Be; Summer Solstice; and All Of A Summer's Day, that won the Sir Barry Jackson Trophy for the best Canadian play at the Dominion Drama Festival in the early 1930s.

Martha Allan was the eldest child of Sir Montague Allan of Ravenscrag, Montreal and Marguerite Ethel Mackenzie, daughter of Hector Mackenzie, of Montreal.

Martha Allan grew up between Ravenscrag, the Allan family mansion in Montreal's Golden Square Mile, and Montrose, the Allans' summer house at Cacouna.

Martha Allan's parents out-lived all their children, including Allan, who never married.

Martha Allan was a woman capable of bringing together a group, with varying degrees of talent, compatibility and dedication, and welding them into an effective, hard-working whole.

Martha Allan gained a reputation for herself as a successful theatrical producer in various art theatres in the United States, most notably as the director of the Pasadena Little Theatre, one of the most respected institutions of the kind on the continent.

Martha Allan returned to Montreal in 1929, determined to establish a community theatre there at a time when 'live theatre' seemed in danger of extinction; the 'movies' having by then become the 'talkies'.

In 1929, Martha Allan organised a meeting at Montreal to be led by Sir Barry Jackson, director of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in England, in which he emphasised the success of the theatres at both Birmingham and Manchester and urged Montrealers to establish their own community theatre.

The MRT's opening night performances were packed to the rafters with old Montreal's social elite, all of whom Miss Martha Allan knew intimately, many of them being close friends of, or related to her parents.

Martha Allan was passionate about demanding the highest artistic standards at the MRT, and encouraged other local amateur groups to achieve the same level of artistic consistency.

Martha Allan worked closely with the Governor-General of Canada, Vere Ponsonby, 9th Earl of Bessborough, in helping to establish the Dominion Drama Festival with Colonel Osborne of Ottawa.

The multi-lingual Martha Allan founded a French theatre as well as the English-speaking MRT.

Martha Allan studied the script in the few available hours and went on stage to play the priest.

Martha Allan was said to be an even better director.

Martha Allan was an organiser with a remarkable way of making the right decision when every other decision had failed.

Nobody seemed to know what the MRT should do, and many suggested it should be disbanded, but Martha Allan insisted it should go on and made it a branch of the Canadian Red Cross with its own work-room.

Martha Allan turned the MRT itself into a wartime service.