Eva Le Gallienne, founder and director of the Civic
Repertory Theatre, New York City, undated

Eva Le Gallienne was born 11 Jan 1899 in London, the daughter of poet and journalist Richard Le Gallienne and Danish journalist Julie Noiregard. Le Gallienne attended drama school for a few months, then moved to New York in 1915. Her first success on stage was at age 20 and was followed by other hits. She abandoned her acting career in 1926 and founded the Civic Repertory Theatre, which closed in 1933. Thirty-two of the thirty-four plays presented there were directed by Le Gallienne. She also starred on Broadway in L'Aiglon with Ethel Barrymore, and translated, staged, and acted in Ibsen's Rosmersholm. She moved with her companion Marion Evensen to a country estate and continued to lecture, tour, and act. Le Gallienne played Queen Elizabeth in Mary Stuart from 1957 to 1962. She won the National Medal of Arts in 1986. Le Gallienne died June of 1991.