Four boxes (Boxes 1-4); 4 linear feet ,

Lawrence (Larry) Carra was a professor of the Carnegie Mellon University drama department for 31 years, from 1946-1977. He directed over 350 plays in Texas, Boston, New Jersey, Chicago, and Pittsburgh. He is also the co-author of the definitive text on directing, Fundamentals of Play Directing, which is now in its fifth edition. In addition to his stage activities, Carra also worked in television production.

Carra was born in Salina, Italy in 1909, but his family moved to Boston when he was three years old. He attended Harvard where he studied biology and directed plays for the drama club. After graduating in 1931, he attended medical school in Rome for a short time before enrolling in the drama school at Yale. Here he took classes from Alexander Dean, who encouraged him to help write the Fundamentals of Play Directing. With a creative and well-researched thesis in the commedia dell’arte style, Carra received his Masters of Fine Arts degree in 1937. In 1938, the Fundamentals book was published. Also in 1938, NBC used Carra’s thesis “The Great Magician” in its Great Plays radio series.

Carra’s first teaching job was at Northwestern University where he was the director of the University Theater. He also directed plays in a summer theater program sponsored by nearby Frances Shimer College. In 1940, he was invited to help develop a theater program at the University of Texas and was appointed as the Acting Head of the Department until he left in 1946. While in Texas, he also directed the San Antonio Civic Opera and an acting group called the Interstate Players who toured Texas bringing theater to towns without professional companies.

In 1946 Carra accepted a job at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and would remain in Pittsburgh for the rest of his life. Although rooted in Pittsburgh, he directed plays from Lakewood, Ohio to Pleasant Mills, New Jersey. From 1951-1952 he took a leave of absence for his first television experience- directing ABC’s Pulitzer Prize Playhouse television series. Carra also directed the successful three year, off-Broadway production “Leave It to Jane” from 1959-1962. During the summer, he was the director-producer of the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival in Lakewood, Ohio from 1965-1975. Here he directed each of Shakespeare’s 37 plays. In 1970 he returned to New York to direct “Candida” on Broadway. However, Carra was active in the Pittsburgh theater scene as well. At Carnegie Mellon he was appointed the Chairman of the General Committee on Television in 1957 where he worked closely with WQED and KDKA to produced educational programming about theater. He directed a summer theater program at CMU from 1975-1980. He produced local music festivals and participated in many different types of drama outreach. He helped establish the Pittsburgh Music Tent in 1958-1959, and also directed plays for the Civic Light Opera from 1959-1963.

In retirement, Mr. Carra lectured at NYU, UCLA, and USC, while also appearing as a guest director occasionally. He also served as a consultant for the Ice Capades and Norman Lear Productions. Carra’s former students include William Ball (American Conservatory Theatre, San Francisco), Mel Shapiro (Broadway producer), John Tebelak (author of ‘Godspell’), Sada Thompson (‘Family’), Jack Klugman (‘Quincy’ and ‘Odd Couple’), and Ken Welch (music and lyrics for ‘Roots’).

Mr. Carra married his wife, Marguerite, in 1935 and together they had three sons- Lawrence, Vincent, and Richard. Marguerite died in 1991. Lawrence died in 2006 and is buried in Homewood Cemetery.

The Lawrence Carra Papers are housed in four archival boxes and arranged into six series. Series have been designated for biographical information, project files, reference files, stage productions, television and radio productions, and oversized materials. Generally, these papers include informal and business correspondence, newspaper clippings, playbills, scripts, production notes, and set designs. Most of the materials have been kept in the original organization of the creator, although they have been arranged into series by the archivist. The majority of the collection is information about the vast number of stage and television productions directed by Mr. Carra. These subject folders can include playbills, scripts, attendance sheets, rehearsal schedules and other production notes, often for multiple productions of one play. The amount of information about each production varies widely. The project and reference files series contain more general subject files for Mr. Carra’s activities inside the classroom and around the stage. The information in these general files parallels some information within the specific production files, at times duplicating it and sometimes bringing additional insight to the stage or television production files. The collection contains little information about his personal life, aside from brief mentions in scattered correspondence throughout the collection. There is also little information about the operation of the broader Carnegie Mellon University drama department in the collection.

These materials were received in one accession as a gift from Mr. Larry Carra, Jr.

None.

A half foot of photographs have been separately arranged and described as the Carra, Lawrence, Photographs collection. Also, oversized materials in this collection have been separated from their original folders and stored together for preservation reasons. They are stored in the second floor map case in drawer 8. A list of materials can be found in series six.

Cassandra Pyle