Guide to the John Ashby Conway Papers
1893-1994

Biographical Note

John Ashby Conway was born in 1905. He grew up in Pittsburgh and graduated from Schenley High School in 1923. His interest in the technical aspects of theater was evident in high school where he worked on the design and building of several school theatrical productions. He went on to study in the Drama Department at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), where he focused on the design and technical aspects of theater. To enhance his education, he spent the summer of 1924 studying stage design in England. He received his BA from Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1927.

Conway’s first position after graduating was at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He spent the summer teaching a course for high school teachers interested in the practical aspects of scene design and stage lighting. He also supervised set production and lighting for four plays of the summer theater season.

Even before Conway started his summer position, he was hired by the University of Washington Department of Dramatic Art on a one-year contract that started in the fall of 1927. He was to teach and to design all theatrical productions put on by the drama program. This became his life's work for the next 48 years. Even though he never received an advanced degree, he was eventually awarded a full professorship on the basis of his extensive study of theater and set design worldwide and his heavy production schedule at the University of Washington. He retired in 1975.

When Conway started teaching at the University of Washington and for many years after, the drama program was designed for those who wanted to teach theater in schools. All students took design and technical classes as well as courses in theater history, acting, and directing. Conway taught all technical and design classes at various times, although his primary focus was on stage, set, and lighting design. He also taught theater history classes and over the years developed classes in the history of various Asian theater traditions, in particular those of China, Japan, and India. He collected material for these subjects during his many trips to Asian countries, particularly Japan. Conway spent seven weeks in the summer of 1928 in Japan at the invitation of the Japanese government, touring theatrical centers for the purpose of understanding the Japanese viewpoint on acting, costumes, and scenery.

During his tenure at the University of Washington, Conway was the principal set designer for almost all of the many productions staged by the School of Drama, and he collaborated with the UW Music Department to stage operas and other special musical productions. Conway also collaborated on the librettos for three operas staged at UW ( The Cowherd and the Sky Maiden, Atsumori, and Undine). Conway was the principal designer or co-designer of most of the theater spaces used by the School of Drama, in particular the Showboat and Penthouse theaters. His redesign of the Playhouse Theater made it the first theater in the country equipped for projecting scenery. He also designed the interior spaces of several other UW buildings and his own homes in Seattle and Port Townsend.

Conway was briefly married to Alpha Roth Conway early in his career at UW. In 1942 he married Dorothy Conway. An artist and educator, she became his partner in his professional career in many ways. In particular, she worked with him on his projected scenery process. He created the original watercolors of the scenery and Dorothy, a professional photographer, photographed the paintings and created the glass slides used to project scenery onto the stage. Their partnership continued until Conway’s death in 1987.

Conway was a lifelong advocate for the arts in general and of theater in particular in communities throughout Washington and nationwide. He also believed that artists should be active in their communities. He thought they should help to influence the look of a community -- from arguing against billboards and for putting utility wires underground to influencing the design of public spaces and buildings. He thought they should also speak out on the need for government support for cultural events and buildings -- from civic spaces such as Seattle Center to performance spaces. Conway supported artists and artistic groups by giving advice and being an active member of arts-related organizations, and by hosting fund-raisers in his home. He actively sought to expose the Seattle area and Washington to the arts and cultures of many countries.

Conway was involved in the formation of several local, regional, and national arts-related organizations and served many other organizations in various capacities. He was one of the co-founders of Allied Arts of Seattle, served as its president in 1956-1957, and was on the board of directors for many years after that. He was also a member and chairman of the State of Washington Governor’s Council of the Arts and later the first chairman (for its first three years) of the Washington State Arts Commission (WSAC). One of his major efforts while he was on WSAC was the establishment of a state arts center outside the Seattle metropolitan area that would serve as a performance venue and tourist destination. This became part of the revamped Fort Worden State Park near Port Townsend. Conway was a longtime member of the Municipal Arts Commission of Seattle, serving at various times as subcommittee chair and as vice-chairman of the commission. Other Northwest organizations for which he played a role include the Washington State Drama Association (founding member; served on the executive board and as president), the Pacific Northwest International Writers' Conference (on the board of directors), and the Northwest Drama Conference (member of the advisory committee, chairman of the technical session at the 1949 conference). Nationally he held office in the American Educational Theatre Association (on the advisory board from 1955 to 1957) and was on the national board of directors for ANTA (American National Theatre and Academy).

Conway made himself freely available to those who were involved in community theater. He answered their letters, he met with them at his home, he created sketches of theater and stage designs, and he occasionally worked with architects on the blueprints for community theater remodels and new buildings. He also advocated for and assisted in the creation of Allied Arts-type groups in communities throughout Washington and in other states.

Conway was an artist and art collector, designer of theater and non-theater spaces, theater technician, teacher, advocate for the arts and for better communities, and last but not least, an accomplished gourmet chef. While his skills were used non-professionally most of his life (although frequently for fund-raisers), he used them to run the Farmhouse, a "weekends only" restaurant in Port Townsend, after he retired.

Scope and Content

The John Ashby Conway papers document Conway's activities as set designer, artistic director, and technical supervisor for University of Washington dramatic and operatic productions between 1927 and 1975. The records document the production of plays, the design of theaters and performance spaces, and Conway’s work with various local and national arts and theatrical organizations. Records include correspondence, playbills, scripts, theater plans, set designs, slides, speeches and writings, and clippings. The collection also contains material from Conway's wife Dorothy.

Arrangement

Arranged into 2 accessions:

• Accession No. 2454-008, John Ashby Conway papers, 1893-1994

• Accession No. 2454-009, John Ashby Conway theater plans, 1963-1993

Restrictions on Use

The creator's literary rights have not been transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.

Restrictions on Access

Open to all users.

Preferred Citation

Cite as: John Ashby Conway Papers, Accession [Accession #], Special Collections, University of Washington Libraries, Seattle, Washington.

Processing Info

In 2003-2004, 7 prior accessions (2454-001 through 2454-007) were merged and processed as Accession No. 2454-008. Accession No. 2454-009 was added in 2004.

In July 2004 approximately 3 cubic feet of photographs from Accession No. 2454-008 were relocated to the John Ashby Conway Photograph Collection, PH Coll. 2004-077, in Special Collections. Most of the photographs are of University of Washington drama and music productions, and many of them were taken by Dorothy Conway. Also relocated were 19 photographs taken by Dorothy Conway, including 3 portraits of B. Iden Payne and Thomas Wilfrid, and photographs commissioned by others for advertising or publicity use. Many of the publications containing these photographs are in the Dorothy Conway subgroup of the Conway papers. Forty-five additional photographs of theaters, theater equipment, and the UW Touring Theatre group were transferred in February 2005.

Two duplicate copies of Showboat drawings from Accession No. 2454-009 were relocated to the Architectural Drawing Collection in Special Collections in April 2005 and form the Showboat Theatre Drawing Collection, PH Coll. 2005-035.

Inventory