Alvina Krause (January 28, 1893 – December 31, 1981) was an American drama teacher at Northwestern University, theatrical entrepreneur, "maker of stars", and director.
Her first name is pronounced Al-vine-na[4] As a girl in rural Wisconsin she found a copy of Hamlet (one source says A Doll's House), and was smitten with a love of dramatic literature, even though an older sister teased her for mispronouncing many of the words.
[4][7] Krause's life partner was her former student, Lucy McCammon (August 12, 1898–December 19, 1991), born to a family prominent in Springfield, Missouri.
[4][5] Krause was the artistic director and driving force for summer theater at Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania, for twenty years from 1945 producing 178 plays by Chekhov, Ibsen, Molière, Rostand, Shakespeare, and Shaw.
Over spring break in 1945, she and Miss McCammon (who taught physical education at nearby Bloomsburg State Teachers College) leased the Forest Inn Playhouse.
They featured performers such as Patricia Neal, Jimmy Gheen, Charlton Heston, Jennifer Jones, Paula Prentiss, and Richard Benjamin.
[4][10][12] Northwestern forced her to retire in 1961, but in the face of alumni protest they let her stay on for two years as a part-time lecturer.
It achieved critical acclaim in its first season (for Six Characters in Search of an Author, The Physicists, Too True To Be Good), but failed.