Theatre Director Jane Stanton Passes Away at 96

Jane Strahan Stanton, an accomplished theatrical director and children's theatre pioneer who brought the joy of live productions to many during a 65-year career, died at age 96 on December 31, 2015. In recent years she was living with her family in Mendocino, California.

A founder of The Heights Players in Brooklyn and the director of its children's theatre for more than 10 years, Stanton also founded and was the director of several other children's and community theater groups in New York and Connecticut. She was the Director and a founder of The Penny Bridge Players Theatre for Children, also in Brooklyn, and a founder and the Artistic Director of The River Rep Theatre Company at The Ivoryton Playhouse in Connecticut.

Stanton was the author of more than 16 imaginative plays for children, performed on many theatrical stages on the East Coast, with music composed by Andrea Stryker-Rodda and Lewis Hardee. Among her better known plays are The Prince with Blue Hair and adaptations of Aladdin, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. "Creating live theatre for children is a labor of love, and being witness to the pure joy of kids who have never seen live theatre before is absolute magic," she said in one newspaper account.

Believed to be the first self-supporting summer theatre in the United States, the historic Ivoryton Playhouse had fallen on difficult times in 1987, and its fortunes were revived by the enthusiastic audiences The River Rep's productions attracted. As Artistic Director for 18 years, she directed over 84 productions, both dramatic and musical. Among the acclaimed Equity productions Stanton directed were Mornings at Seven, Blithe Spirit, and The Royal Family.

Stanton's work was also seen on off Broadway and regional theatre stages where she directed many well-received productions for adult audiences, including a number of originals for the stage. She formed New World Productions in 1982 for which she directed 14 plays at The Wonderhorse Theatre. She co-produced the original off Broadway musical production Oh Me, Oh My, Oh Youmans at The New Vic Theatre, and Knitters in the Sun at the Lucille Lortel Theatre.

For 16 winter seasons, Stanton was the Artistic Director at The Hampton Theatre Company in Quogue, Long Island, directing such well-received productions as Crimes of the Heart, The Dining Room and The Little Foxes. Before retiring at age 85, she directed several shows each year for The Tar River Players in Tarboro, North Carolina.

Born in New York in 1919 to Robert Hardy Strahan and Harriet Dudley Mosher, Stanton earned a Bachelor's degree from Wellesley College in 1940, and studied for a Master's degree at Johns Hopkins University. A working mother of three long before it became common, she won the Vogue Magazine Prix de Paris, which led to jobs in New York as a fashion copywriter at Vogue and later at Aldens.

Stanton was married for 36 years to Robert Francis Stanton, Jr., an advertising executive from whom she was later divorced. She is survived by Alexander Stanton of Greenwich, CT, Judy O'Karma of Mendocino, CA, Anne Stanton Malone of San Francisco, CA, daughter-in-law Wendy Stanton, sons-in-law Christopher O'Karma and Rik Malone, and five grandchildren who she adored - John, Andrew, Matthew, Spencer and Stella Jane.