George Pierce Baker

George Pierce Baker (1866-1935), American educator, who in 1925 became professor of the history and technique of drama at Yale University and director of the Yale University Theater, which was built to his specifications. He was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and graduated from Harvard University. From 1888 to 1924 Baker taught English at Harvard, where he became the first professor of dramatic literature and taught (1905-13) a course in playwriting, “English 47: Techniques of Drama.” At Harvard he developed the experimental “47 Workshop,” his famous laboratory course in which such drama students as Eugene O'Neill, Edward Sheldon, and George Abbott staged plays they had written. These courses encouraged college theater and significantly influenced American professional theater. Baker also wrote The Development of Shakespeare as a Dramatist (1907) and Dramatic Technique (1919) and edited various Elizabethan plays.