Our History
NAVIGATION
A rich tradition of music and laughter dating to 1889
Dramatic Beginnings
In 1888, a small group of undergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania, led by Clayton Fotterall McMichael, were interested in the stage and feeling restless. Here were talented and ambitious scions of prominent Philadelphia families with no proper outlet for their artistic pursuits. Those interested in the Classics produced Euripides, while Shakespeareans went to the English department. McMichael and his cohort, however, wanted something different: a troupe that would produce humorous theatrical pieces. What was a college student to do? Get up in frocks and spoof everyone and everything, naturally.
And so, in 1889, was posted the iconic original poster in Penn’s College Hall. Opening, “Look!! College Men Take Notice!!!,“ the casting call for the formation of a new dramatic club urged students interested to, “Defer no time; delays have dangerous ends.” Because colleges at the time were open only to young gentlemen, any production was limited to an all–male cast. Burlesque, quite popular in that era, was the perfect genre – comedic elements, loose plotting, musical interludes, built-in drag tradition, and parody of high art made the style perfect for a group of young, well–educated, amateur men.
McMichael combed local bookstores for a story to produce and found it in Henry Byron’s The Nymphs of the Lurleyburg. With a little pirating and a bit of imagination, Lurline, the Club’s first production, opened for one night only at the Chestnut Street Opera House on June 4, 1889. This debut makes Mask and Wig the second-oldest undergraduate dramatic club in the United States, predated only by Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals. Backed financially by members of Philadelphia high society, the Club immediately met great success in its early years. With increasingly reliable audience turnout and revenue from ticket sales, runs were extended and the Club established a fine tradition both on Penn’s campus and among Philadelphia’s theater-going society. To this day, the Club produces each year an Annual Production in the tradition of McMichael and founders.
Finding a Home
In 1894, the Club purchased a property at 310 South Quince Street to serve as a gathering place and rehearsal hall, now known fondly as the Mask and Wig Clubhouse. The building was erected in 1834 as St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. Led by Reverend Jehu Jones Jr., the congregation was one of the first African-American Lutheran congregations in the United States. Following a foreclosure, the building was sold at auction in 1839 and converted to a dissecting room for students at Jefferson Medical College. In the 1880s, the building was again purchased and converted into a coachhouse and stable.
Following Mask and Wig’s acquisition of the property, prominent Philadelphia architect Wilson Eyre was commissioned to make the building suitable for the young Club, completing a transformation and expansion by 1903. Eyre hired the young Maxfield Parrish, who would later become one of the greatest illustrators of the twentieth century, to decorate the interior. Among the adornments included the still-present proscenium above the stage and an original mural, inspired by the painting King Cole and His Fiddlers Three, said to have been Parrish’s first-ever commission. Parrish then initiated a Mask and Wig tradition, decorating the Grille Room with amusing caricatures of members. This tradition of caricature continues today, with the second century of members’ caricatures continued on the second floor at the entrance to the auditorium.
The Turn of the Century
The Club prospered throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Continuing the tradition of high standards in the caliber of performers and excellence of the material presented, Mask and Wig productions were an annual fixture of the Philadelphia theater community.
Beginning in 1891 with the production Miss Columbia, Mask and Wig began an annual Tour, bringing the Annual Production to audiences outside Philadelphia. With initial performances in New York City and Washington, D.C., by the 1940s the Tour had expanded to have visited 31 different cities across the United States. Members would travel in style in a Mask and Wig-branded Pennsylvania Railroad car (so christened in 1930), playing sold-out shows across the country and enjoying relaxation in the myriad cities that welcomed them. The tradition of touring across the country and the world continues to this day, during the University’s spring break.
Beginning a period of heady times for the Club, 1908 brought such philanthropic goodwill and ticket revenues that the Club donated funds to the University of Pennsylvania to build a dormitory in the Quadrangle. The dormitory was dedicated to the memory of founder McMichael, who had passed on in 1907. The building, to this day, bears the name of Mask and Wig and hosts a private Clubroom for members of the Club.
Mask and Wig songs became the rage of the big band orchestras, radio shows, and solo acts of the day. In 1925, the first album to ever be electrically recorded was Mask and Wig’s Joan of Arkansas. The likes of Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Rosemary Clooney, and Les Brown all covered Mask and Wig tunes. The well-known song “Route 66” was composed by Club member Bobby Troup and launched to the height of popularity by Sinatra. Troup’s famous song “Daddy” was originally written for a Mask and Wig show. Between 1952 and 1958, the Club appeared four times on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Into Modern Times
After surviving through the Depression and two World Wars, the Club (and its more elaborate cousins on Broadway) found leaner days and thinner audiences awaiting in the fifties. With television becoming the staple of the American entertainment diet, the Club adapted its product to suit the tastes of the time. Ever placing comedy at the forefront, Mask and Wig shifted to a satirical revue format with the 1961 production, Wry on the Rocks. That same year, the Annual Production moved from playing at Philadelphia theaters to its modern-day home in the Ned Rogers Theater at the Clubhouse.
With the end of the millennium came challenging times. Following years of financial peril, driven by the costs of maintaining the historic Clubhouse and lack of returns on the Club’s Annual Production, the Club was forced to adapt. In 1992, Mask and Wig returned the format of the student-written book musical to the stage with Myth America. Because the Club is separately incorporated from the University of Pennsylvania, a plan to allow the Club to endure financially into the future was a necessity. Sadly in dire straits, the Club was forced to sell, among other works of art, its treasured original Maxfield Parrish mural, Old King Cole. Today, a reproduction sits in its original place in the Grille Room. This sale established an endowment that to this day, along with support of its members, generosity of donors, and proceeds of its productions (which quickly recovered following this period), allows for the survival of the Club and the maintenance of the Clubhouse.
In 2003, the Club’s Board of Governors recognized that the Clubhouse was in need of comprehensive renovations. Through a capital campaign supported largely by the generosity of its members, a transformative renovation of the Clubhouse was planned. Extensive structural work, addition of central heating and air conditioning systems, addition of accessibility features including an elevator, and conservation work on the historic artwork adorning the walls commenced in 2007. Sadly, a fire badly damaged the beloved building and required additional conservation and construction work that forced the Club to perform its Annual Production in a local Philadelphia theater. After a long absence, the building reopened in 2008 with preserved historic charm and twenty-first century amenities.
During the 2020-2021 academic year, the Club initiated and performed an extensive Strategic Review process, which included participation of both undergraduate and alumni members. This led to the adoption of a hybrid format for the Annual Production, in which a loose plot serves as scaffold for comedic sketches and musical numbers.
Importantly, the Strategic Review identified that the Club should eliminate gender as a qualification for participation and membership. After careful implementation during the course of a year, the previously all-male troupe opened its ranks to all genders in the 2022-2023 academic year.
The Club’s primary purpose has always been and continues to be, “Justice to the stage; credit to the University.” Today, Mask and Wig maintains its position as one of the premier extracurricular activities on the Penn campus. So get your tickets, join us, or get in touch to enjoy a tradition over a century in the making and still going strong: