From the Archives: BVM’s Love of Theatre Enriches Her Life and Her Students

Edited by Jean Byrne, BVM
BVM Center News, August 2001

With the dramatic arts awards season in full swing, it’s appropriate to reflect on the career of Angelita Kramer, BVM, who acted throughout St. Mary’s High School and Mundelein College, both in Chicago.

“I thought I was nobly closing the door to theatre when I opened the door to the novitiate at Mount Carmel, Dubuque, Iowa,” she wrote in her autobiography.

But the show did go on, even when she least expected it, according to an August 2001 BVM Center News Archival Clip. Angelita graduated from Mundelein in 1935 and joined the BVM community in 1937.

She earned a masters degree in theatre, and sparked an appreciation of the dramatic arts in her students.

“When I started teaching theatre, I discovered there was a new organization that had emerged in Chicago, the National Catholic Theater Conference. For a time I served as president and traveled from coast to coast. In Hollywood I met Clark Gable, Loretta Young, Martin and Lewis, Bill Bixby, Jane Powell and Jane Wyatt,” she wrote.

At a time when religious could not attend public performances, her associations allowed her to “buy out the house for a performance. We did this for Sound of Music—Mary Martin; Camelot—Andrews, Burton, Goulet;” and other popular shows.

She went where there was a need for experienced theatre teachers, including the Twin Cities, just before the Guthrie Theater opened.

“For a while I developed a split personality, one half academic and one half professional theater while I worked at the Guthrie on Title III grants and workshops.

“You see, there really is a freedom in the vows. We are not hindered by monetary considerations. We are free to go where there is a need.

“I never realized when I pledged my life to go anywhere and offered to relinquish the most joyous interest in my life that my blessings would be so abundant, and my life so enriched by the things I thought I had given up!”