Arthur Wagner Papers, 1949-1991 (MSS 809)

Actor, director, and professor of drama Arthur Wagner (1923-2015) was born in New York City. He received a B.A. in Philosophy from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, and went on to receive his M.A. in Theatre Arts from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. He was involved in community theatre and was an artistic director of the Springfield Civic Theatre in Massachusetts from 1948 to 1950. Wagner studied with renowned actor Paul Mann at The Actor's Workshop in New York City from 1953 to 1955. He was named head of the Theatre Arts Department and director of the Annie Russell Theatre at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla. in 1956 and held that position for nine years, while earning his doctorate in drama from Stanford University, which was awarded in 1962.

Throughout the 1960s, Wagner held many foundational teaching positions in the field of dramatic arts. He was a professor of drama at Tulane University from 1965 to 1967, where he established the Graduate Actor Training Program. He then spent two years as a faculty member and director of graduate and undergraduate actor training programs at Ohio University, then Temple University in Philadelphia. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Wagner was a visiting professor of drama and a guest actor for Columbia University in New York.

In 1972, Wagner was recruited to UC San Diego to become chair of the new Department of Drama (now known as the Department of Theatre and Dance). In 1977, he became professor and head of the UC San Diego Graduate Actor Training Program, a position he held until his retirement in 1991. Wagner was an integral part of the performing arts scene at UC San Diego, actively directing and acting in innumerous productions, training actors, and developing the department into one of the top theatre and dance programs in the nation. After his official retirement, he and his wife, Molli Wagner, continued to be closely involved with the UC San Diego community: the Wagners were co-chairs of the Student Production Fund Endowment; Wagner served on the Board of Trustees for the La Jolla Playhouse; and he participated in the Building Advisory Committee of the Mandeville Center for the Arts, the Fourth College Planning Committee, the Advisory Committee for the Center of Music Experiment, and the Committee on Campus Growth. The Arthur and Molli Wagner Dance Facility, completed in 1998, was named in honor of the couple and their contributions to campus life.

Content for this note was provided by the UC San Diego obituary for Arthur Wagner:

https://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/arthur_wagner_founding_chair_of_uc_san_diego_theatre_and_dance_dies