Harold Chapin

Harold Chapin (15 February 1886 – 26 September 1915) was an English actor and playwright.

Harold Chapin

Life

Chapin was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1886. His mother was Alice Chapin actress and suffragette and his father was Harvey Merrill Ferris.[1] Although "technically an American citizen, he was an English actor, and English playwright and died as a British soldier". A true man of the theatre, he worked as an actor (appearing extensively in the West End and in the original productions of What Every Woman Knows by J.M. Barrie and Strife by John Galsworthy), director and stage manager, and was closely associated with Harley Granville Barker.

His plays were produced throughout the UK and in New York City [2]

Regarded as one of the greatest potential dramatic talents to be lost in the First World War, his work has often been compared with that of Edwardian playwright St John Hankin. Although largely unperformed today, his best known three-act work, The New Morality was performed at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 2005[3] and in New York City in 2015.[4]

Enlisting in the Royal Army Medical Corps of the British Army in September 1914, Lance Corporal Chapin was killed in action at the age of 29 at the Battle of Loos in 1915,[5] leaving a wife and five-year-old son.

Bibliography
  • Augustus in Search of a Father. One Act.
  • The Marriage of Columbine. Four Acts.
  • Muddle Annie One Act.
  • The Autocrat of the Coffee Stall. One Act
  • Innocent and Annabel. One Act.
  • The Dumb and the Blind. One Act.
  • The Threshold. One Act.
  • Elaine. Three Acts.
  • Art & Opportunity. Three Acts.
  • Wonderful Grandmama. Two parts.
  • The New Morality. Three Acts.
  • It's the Poor that 'Elps the Poor. One Act.
  • Every Man for His Own. One Act.
  • Dropping the Baby. One Act
  • The Philosopher of Butterbiggins. One Act
  • The Well Made Dress Coat. Four Acts

References
  1. Maggie B. Gale, ‘Chapin, Harold (1886–1915)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2015 accessed 9 Nov 2017
  2. Internet Broadway Database: Harold Chapin Credits on Broadway
  3. Finborough Theatre Archive 2005, description of production of The New Morality
  4. Soloski, Alexis (24 September 2015). "Review: 'The New Morality,' a Vintage Play at the Mint". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  5. CWGC entry

Sources
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