Mae (Stein) Soble Papers

Mae Stein was born in Meadville, Pennsylvania in 1879. She married John J. Soble, an Elmira native, and together they moved to Rochester in 1910; he founded a successful lumber company in Rochester. Mae worked as a drama and speech teacher, and was involved in the woman's suffrage movement and the League of Women Voters. The couple were members of Temple Berith Kodesh. She was an avid supporter of local amateur theater, directing numerous plays and founding the Laboratory of Theater Arts in 1924. She was particularly interested in experimental theater, going so far as to write a book on the subject, thought it was noty published (the manuscript survives in this collection). She wrote several other books, including works on theater and Biblical history, frequently spoke on the radio, and founded Rochester's Rose Day in May of 1935. For the last ten years of her lief, Mae Soble lived in Spring Valley, New York (Rockland County), and devoted much of her time to New York City's Spastic Palsy Clinic. She passed away on January 27, 1951 at Rochester's Highland Hospital, and is buried with her husband in Elmira.

Mrs. Soble's Laboratory of Theater Arts was founded in November of 1924. The Laboratory grew out of The Amateurs, a University of Rochester women's theater troupe dating back to the First World War. It aimed to provide instruction in all aspects of the theater world, presenting one-act plays monthly at a theater on South Avenue. It also was one of several amateur groups advocating for the foundation of a civic theater at that time. The group was not succesful in this last goal, but continued to produce plays for several years. In 1930, it came under the auspices of the Jewish Young Men's and Women's Association, and was renamed the J. Y. Laboratory of Theater Arts. Based on newspaper records, it appears this version of the company lasted through 1932.