Lavinia Schaeffer papers

Lavinia Miriam Schaeffer was born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on January 8, 1903. Her name was changed from Delara Melquist when she was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Frank Schaeffer on September 4, 1903. A graduate of Yankton College in South Dakota, Schaeffer earned her M.A. at Northwestern University and came to Bates to teach speech and theater in the fall of 1938. A stylish presence on the tweedy New England campus, Schaeffer directed some 100 major productions during her career, with an emphasis on Shakespeare and a perfectionist's eye for planning, details, and execution. She maintained unwavering confidence in her actors, and within this creatively safe environment they gave their best to the professor they called "the Schaeff." In return she gave them her interest in their lives both inside and outside the Bates theater. A discussion with Miss Schaeffer, one student wrote, always ended with relief "because she had received us." For most of her career Schaeffer worked in Hathorn's aptly named Little Theatre, and in 1972 Bates' theater on College Street, built in 1960, was named in her honor. She died in July 1978.