Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Use of films will require production of viewing copies.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Lynn Gault Papers Inventory #04987, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from Lee Davis of Brasstown, N.C., in August 1998 (Acc. 98431).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Authors, American--20th century.
• Carolina Playmakers.
• Dramatists, American--20th century.
• Gault, Lynn (Robert Lynn), d. 1998.
• Green, Paul. The lost colony.
• Theater--North Carolina.
• Theater--Virginia.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Faculty--History--20th century.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--Faculty--History--20th century.
• Virginia Players.

• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dramatic Art Department Photographs (Collection 35), North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives;
• Playbills from Carolina Playmakers productions, North Carolina Collection;
• Carolina Playmakers Scrapbook, North Carolina Collection.

A native of Ohio, Lynn Gault was educated at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Youngstown College, Hiram College, and the University of North Carolina. He received his A.B. degree from Hiram College in 1937 and his M.A. in dramatic art from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1939.

After receiving his master's degree, Gault taught briefly at the University of Virginia and at Hiram College. During World War II, he served in the Signal Corps of the United States Army and then in Anti-Aircraft, in which branch he saw action in the Pacific. He was released with the rank of captain in 1945.

In 1946, Gault joined the staff of the Carolina Playmakers as scene designer and technical director. For the next five years, Gault designed and constructed stage settings, directed and acted in Playmakers productions, and taught in the University of North Carolina's Department of Dramatic Art.

During the summers, Gault worked with several outdoor historical dramas as scene designer, choreographer, and actor. He started as technical assistant for The Lost Colony production in 1938, was made technical director in 1947, and was responsible for rebuilding all scenery and properties after the fire that season. In 1950, he was the original stage designer for Unto These Hills, an outdoor drama in Cherokee, N.C.

During a summer when Gault was working on Unto These Hills, he became intensely interested in ceramics and, after a period of study and experimentation, decided to devote himself full time to pottery. In 1952, he moved permanently to Brasstown, N.C., where he bought an old farm house on Birdfoot Ridge and started a pottery.

In Brasstown, Gault taught pottery classes at the John C. Campbell Folk School, served on the school's board of directors, and was one of the early members of the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild. He was also a founding member of the Brasstown Concert Association, and, in 1974, he helped to originate the Brasstown Community Theatre. Gault read The Christmas Carol in a special Folk School performance every year from 1952 through 1980.

Gault's wife Lucille died in 1981. Gault died on 30 March 1998 at his home in Brasstown.

This collection primarily documents Lynn Gault's work in theater, especially with the Carolina Playmakers, in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It contains scripts of his plays, poetry, and other writings; and articles, posters, playbills, and other material relating to Gault, to the Carolina Playmakers, and to the Virginia Players. The five reels of film received with the papers have not been viewed, but may contain images of Playmakers productions and to productions of Paul Green's The Lost Colony in the late 1940s or early 1950s.

Films (F-4987/1-5)