Dr. Fletcher Collins, who turned 98 last
November and celebrated his 73rd wedding anniversary on April 23, has gone into
a sharp decline in the last week. He is sporadically lucid enough,
however, to receive messages from well wishers through his son,
Brandon.
Most of you will know Fletch as a pioneer in the study of
medieval music drama. He received his PhD from Yale, working with Karl
Young in the 1920s, collected folk songs for the WPA during the Depression,
published _The Production of Medieval Church Music-Drama_ in 1972, _Medieval
Church Music-Dramas: A Repertory of Complete Plays_ in 1976, and _A Medieval
Songbook: Troubadour and Trouvere_ in 1982. Many of you perhaps use his
1979 video of _The Fleury Visitatio_ in your medieval drama classes, as I
do. As recently as 2003, Fletch published a a booklet of _Songs from
Shakespeare's Repertory_, all the songs either included or mentioned in
Shakespeare's work, with all available music. Of course, he was only 96 at
the time. But he has not slacked off entirely since that last youthful
endeavor. Just last year, Fletch produced a CD of his musical settings of
Yeats's songs, and he has continued his interest in folk song and folk theater,
in addition to medieval drama. Oak Grove, which Fletcher and his wife,
Margaret, founded in 1953, is the oldest continuous regional theater in the
United States and continues to thrive.
If you would like to send your
good wishes to Fletch and Margaret, please write them care of Brandon at
[log in to unmask].
Alan
Baragona