LIFE BEYOND THE LIMELIGHT

Theatre Lawrence’s Mary Doveton Stages

Her Exit, Ready to Take on New Roles

by A my C. K elly // photogr A phy by JA son DA iley

IT’S HARD TO TALK TO MARY DOVETON WITHOUT DISCUSSING THEATRE AT SOME POINT. If you don’t mention it, she probably will. This isn’t surprising, in light of her 45 years in the business.

But there’s more to discover about Doveton’s life behind the scenes. Married 52 years, with two grown children and four grandchildren, there has been plenty to occupy her time. And now, she finds herself with more opportunity to explore interests beyond theatre.

In March of 2023, Doveton retired from Theatre Lawrence, an organization she founded in 1977. The endeavor evolved from a small, spirited group of amateur theatre enthusiasts and grew to become an award-winning community theatre, housed in a 35,000-square-foot facility.

Doveton’s love for theatre began early in life. By age five, she was an avid reader and recalls being swept away by the magic of storytelling after seeing a production of “Rumpelstiltskin.”

“They spun straw into gold!” Doveton relates her childhood excitement with glee. “My whole life, I have loved stories. I love reading them, creating them, visiting them, sharing them, drawing people into them. The idea of exploring new and different worlds just enthralls me.”

Her love for storytelling soon developed into a career aspiration. An Iowa native, Doveton continued living at home while majoring in theatre at Clarke University in Dubuque. Her path took an unexpected turn when she moved to Lawrence to pursue a master’s in theatre at the University of Kansas.

The late 60s and early 70s were turbulent times. Race riots, arson and civil protests were becoming commonplace. As a graduate student, Doveton attended the May 8, 1970 rally where Chancellor Laurence Chalmers, surrounded by Black Panthers, was deciding whether to close the KU campus.

As Doveton cheered and jeered at the speeches, she noticed that the tall, buttoned-up Englishman sitting next to her was equally animated. The pair hit it off. In early June, she accepted John Doveton’s proposal of marriage, only weeks before he left to work as a petrophysicist at an oil well site 200 miles outside of Calgary, Canada. Six months later, the newlyweds honeymooned onsite after John smuggled his bride in, defying the “no women allowed” rule.

Mary Doveton found living in Calgary captivating. The booming oil industry attracted people from all over the world. She had never seen anything like it.

“Because the weather was so frigid, the social life was amazing,” she recalls. “The Foreign Film Society was hugely popular!”

Doveton felt she was among her people, though the culture was not without its pitfalls. When she applied to be a drama specialist at the University of Calgary, Doveton was required to pass a spelling and typing test—because she was a woman.

The Dovetons ultimately landed back in Lawrence, where John taught at KU and worked for the Kansas Geological Survey. Mary was teaching in Topeka when she had the idea to start a theatre company. She gathered a fledgling group of volunteers who pooled their resources and raised $500 (the equivalent of about $2,500 today). Using a cigar box as the “box office,” Mary selected and directed the company’s first show, now with little 18-month Clare in tow.

The theatre had to operate on a cash basis because securing a bank loan was out of the question. In 1974, women had only just secured the right to apply for personal credit cards in their own names.

“Mostly we got laughed at,” Doveton says of her attempts to secure financing. It would be another 10 years before a woman was allowed to get a smallbusiness loan without a male co-signer. None of this dissuaded Mary Doveton.

“She’s a take-charge person,” her husband says, “but she rarely brought her work home.”

Mary agrees that she tried to maintain her private life apart from her work life as much as possible, considering the nature of her career.

Sometimes, however, she did bring her work home—cast parties were said to be frequent and lively. The couple also enjoyed entertaining scientists from all over the world through John’s university connections.

Meanwhile, the Dovetons were raising two children.

“It was never unusual to think that a woman could do whatever she wanted, or that having art as a career was anything but normal,” Clare Doveton says of her childhood.

After her mother’s theatre company landed its first home at 15th and New Hampshire, Clare and her brother, Mike Doveton, would often pop over to the theatre after school. Clare fondly remembers exploring the costume shop, visiting the green room where the actors prepared and napping in the vintage pews that served as audience seating.

“A theatre is a magical place to raise a kid!” she laughs. “Everywhere we went, people knew my mom. It was as if we were a part of it.”

The family would typically spend a few hours together over dinner before Mary headed back to the theatre for rehearsal. John spent most evenings at home, “sitting with his pipe by the fireplace, and a yellow legal pad in his lap, writing a book,” according to his daughter.

Though he was sometimes called the “odd one out” for being a scientist, Mary says her husband was crucial to her success with the theatre.

“I could not have done anything I have done without John,” she says. “He is the most supportive person I could ever wish for.”

Raised in post-World War II England, John Doveton watched both of his parents work through the war and continue to work afterward in rebuilding efforts. In later years, his father managed the White Rock Theatre in Hastings, so he knew live entertainment venues could be successful.

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More importantly, he knew his wife.

“She had been told growing up in Iowa not to push herself forward or be assertive, and yet was strongly encouraged to do whatever she wanted in life,” he says.

Mary Doveton did precisely that. With calm persistence, she ushered a community theatre through four decades of growth and challenges (including small floods and a 2003 fire). She staged hundreds of productions, engaged thousands of volunteers and entertained generations of people. Her unwavering resolve also led her to spearhead a $7.2 million capital campaign to build a new facility at Bauer Farm.

All the while, the Dovetons continued to help guide their now-adult kids and have joyfully embraced grandparenthood.

“Mom retired? This I cannot envision!”

Clare Doveton laughs at the idea. “She needs to be busy. I cannot imagine her not doing something. It will be rather exciting to see what grabs her attention.”

Many others in the Lawrence community, who think of Mary Doveton’s name as synonymous with Theatre Lawrence, quite likely share this sentiment. Doveton herself seems to agree.

“I am looking forward to the next adventure!” she says. For whatever that may be, Doveton is ready. n

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