Stella Holt

Stella Holt
Born	1917
Died	1967
Residence	New York City
Education	Cornell University
Occupation	Off-Broadway Producer
Years active	1952-1967

Stella Holt (1917-1967) was an American theater producer who served as the managing director of the off-Broadway Greenwich Mews Theater in New York City for 15 years. Holt lost her sight at age 17, but said that she found her blindness "no real handicap." Holt was known for being one of the first producers in New York to use racially integrated casts.

Holt graduated from Cornell University and initially found employment as a social worker before becoming frustrated by her inability to create meaningful change on behalf of her clients. She shifted her focus to putting on art exhibitions, and said "I found, if any, that my talent lay in organizing." In 1952 she became managing director of the Greenwich Mews Theater and produced "Monday's Heroes", a play written by Lester Pine and featuring a young Zina Bethune in her first acting role.

Holt produced 38 plays at the Greenwich Mews Theater over the course of her tenure there, including plays by Padraic Colum, Rene Marques, and Sean O'Casey. She was skeptical of the over-reliance on spectacle in other productions of the time, and professed her desire to "follow the project of the author in a straightforward way." The playwright Tennessee Williams praised her production of his "Orpheus Descending," which he preferred over the film adaptation and previous Broadway production.

Holt selected plays to produce by going through submissions with her partner Frances Drucker, a former high school teacher with whom she had a 20-year relationship. Her preference was for "plays of serious content, poetic quality". In 1965 the Cuban-born director Gilberto Zaldivar joined Holt as an associate producer at the Greenwich Mews, becoming co-producer with Drucker after Holt's death.

Holt produced Langston Hughes's play "Simply Heavenly" in 1957, with a budget of $4200 and a cast of 17 actors including Melvin Stewart and Claudia McNeil. It transferred to Broadway after 44 performances. She was a co-producer on Hughes's "Jerico-Jim Crow" in 1964, and in 1965 she brought his "Prodigal Son" to the Greenwich Mews under the direction of Vinnette Carroll. "Prodigal Son" drew large crowds in New York, and buoyed by this success Holt put together a European tour. The touring production was plagued by financial issues, including late payment of the touring company. Holt was largely blamed for these problems, and according to playwright Isaiah Sheffer, "some of her business practices were, to put it mildly, highly questionable ... I saw enough hanky-panky and cutting of corners to wonder about her ethics."

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