"[20] Another commented, "This clever producer likes something that requires imagination and originality in setting and lighting",[21] while another wondered, "It would be interesting to see what Miss Hollinworth could do with a professional cast – something outstanding is indicated.

[41] A reviewer commented that, while the subject of the play was profound, the plot was flimsy and some of the acting melodramatic; however, Hollinworth "had provided an attractively simple setting".

[1][3][40] A Sydney Morning Herald reviewer expressed surprise "that [Beggar on Horseback] reached as high a standard as it did", continuing "Miss May Hollinworth has already given evidence of resourcefulness and imagination as producer for amateurs".

[44] She was the producer of The Thirty-Eight Theatre, an amateur group which formed in 1938, which gave play-readings as well as two stage productions, Dodie Smith's Bonnet Over the Windmill in May 1939,[45][46] and Rosamond Lehmann's No More Music in August 1939.

[47] A review of Bonnet Over the Windmill commented, "Much of the credit for the success of the presentation must go to the producer, May Hollinworth, who, in several recent productions, has proved her ability to handle casts with skill and judgment.

"[48] Hollinworth worked with the Impressionist Theatre company, as director or as stage manager, for a number of productions, including Cyrano de Bergerac and Death Takes a Holiday.

productions, including Alathea Siddons,[51][52] a science graduate from Sydney University,[37] who, as a former student, had appeared in The Frogs (1940), Cousin Muriel (1941) and Julius Caesar (1941); Lyndall Barbour;[10] Bruce Beeby;[51] and Kevin Brennan.

Performances were held on a subscription basis at a suburban hall in Killara, a suburb on the North Shore of Sydney, where a new amateur theatrical group, the Kuringai Theatre Guild,[10] had just been formed, with O. D. Bisset as chairman.

[54] In 1946, Hollinworth opened the Metropolitan Theatre in an upstairs room in Reiby Place, in the warehouse district of Circular Quay, Sydney,[10][57] with "an excellent production of Othello.

Leslie Rees wrote of a performance of Twelfth Night in 1946, "I count it a grave error on Miss Hollinworth's part to require [David Saxby's Sir Andrew] to sustain a monotonous and unfunny falsetto.

In 1947, George Johnston wrote, "May Hollinworth's .. pint-size theatre can be found at the end of some squalid wooden stairs in a building surrounded by waterfront warehouses.

It can see such plays as ... Douglas Stewart's own splendid Australian drama, "Ned Kelly", which surely deserved a better premiere than an audience of 70 in an upstairs room overlooking empty garbage-bins, an unlighted lane, and a rather limp-looking hamburger stand.

"[63] Another reviewer wrote, "May Hollinworth, who has to wrestle with the limitations of a severely cramped stage and a small stuffy room, deserves at least air conditioning, and at best translation to a more spacious and sound-proof realm for the working of her magic unhampered by the noise of dust-bins and by the soporific discomfort of wedged-in humanity.

[68] Actors who belonged to the Metropolitan Players during the remaining years of Hollinworth's directorship and later became notable included Betty Lucas,[1][10][57] David Cahill,[69] Gerry Duggan,[69][70] H. G. Kippax,[69] Dinah Shearing,[1][10] Robin Lovejoy,[1][10] Redmond Phillips,[71] Richard Meikle,[72] and John Meillon.

[75] The following year, an article about children's theatre in Australia reported that Hollinworth planned to present an annual series of open-air performances in school grounds across Sydney city.

[63] While Hollinworth did not fully realise this plan, in 1949, the company toured seventeen towns in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland, performing Twelfth Night at matinees for school students, and The Rivals and Priestley's Laburnum Grove in the evening.

"[68] In 1949 also, the Metropolitan Theatre moved to new premises in the hall of Christ Church St Laurence, Pitt Street, with a capacity of two hundred seats.

In her own right each is a capable producer but the two styles did not mix, unfortunately, and the result was one of the most mundane productions to come from this theatre for some time");[104] Tennessee Williams' The Rose Tattoo in 1956 (described as "a most lively and finished production by May Hollinworth, with precision and excellence of detail rare in repertory work");[105] William Inge's Come Back, Little Sheba in 1957 ("another achievement for May Hollinworth as producer, and an achievement for the well-knit cast ... [they] fully earn the enthusiastic applause and the excellent house");[106] and Do You Know the Milky Way?

by Karl Wittlinger in 1964 ("James Dibble and Robert Levis .... both .. achieved complete credibility in .. a play remarkable for its cohesion all well tended by the producer, Miss May Hollingworth."

[108] This fully professional production, in which the author played a key role, was considered "close to [a] spectacular success",[109] in which Hollinworth "directed her strong cast with sensitiveness and strength".

[109] Hollinworth also directed the play on its Newcastle and Canberra tours the following year; in the latter, a reviewer considered that she "has used pace and vigour to take her through the difficulties in the script, giving a compelling picture of characters in action.

In her later years, she was patron of the Pocket Playhouse Theatre, Sydenham,[1] adjudicated at the British Drama League Festival,[111] and joined the All Nations Club, which promoted cultural exchange between established and New Australians.

[1][112] Hollinworth died in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Camperdown, on 19 November 1968; her funeral, according to Anglican rites, was held at the Northern Suburbs Crematorium, Sydney.

[1][15] A bronze plaque commemorating May Hollinworth is affixed to the wall at the site of the Metropolitan Theatre, 1 Loftus Street, Sydney (in the 2010s, the Paragon Hotel).