[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 88 (Tuesday, June 28, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1394]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               HONORING CRAIG NOEL--A SAN DIEGO TREASURE!

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BOB FILNER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 28, 2005

  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor San Diego's own living 
treasure, Craig Noel--the founding director of the Old Globe Theater.
  Born in New Mexico in 1915, Craig came to San Diego as a child and 
made his Globe debut as a 20-year old actor in 1937. According to 
Craig, ``it's been a long tenure. You know, it took me 70 years to 
accomplish what anyone else could have done in 10--but then this is San 
Diego. Everything takes longer here. But the important thing is we've 
been able to keep it going.''
  Craig has enriched the quality of life in San Diego through visionary 
dreams that became reality. He has worked to improve the larger 
community through his support and encouragement of playwrights, actors 
and theatre artists and through the nurturing generations of citizens 
who have become today's theatre-goers and arts supporters.
  Craig established the world-renowned Shakespeare Festival at the 
Globe in 1949. He guided the theatre's transformation to professional 
status in 1959, establishing it as the oldest continuing, professional 
not-for-profit theatre in California.
  Craig created an audience for new works through his early '60s spring 
seasons at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, where he introduced 
the works of Beckett, Ionesco, Anouilh, Pirandello, Brecht, Behan, 
Giraudoux and Albee to San Diegans. Their response was so enthusiastic 
that Craig instituted seasons of such works at the Falstaff Tavern, 
which was later remodeled and renamed the Cassius Carter Centre Stage 
(1969). Among Craig's other innovations are Globe Educational Tours and 
the Play Discovery Program, which began in 1974.
  To fulfill his long-held dream of a theatre that would extend across 
the border to enrich artists and audiences of Southern California's two 
neighboring cultures, Craig instituted the Globe's bilingual theatre 
component, Teatro Meta, in 1983. Teatro Meta administers an award-
winning, bilingual in-schools theatre program.
  Craig's most recent world-premiere productions include Lillian 
Garrett-Groag's ``The White Rose'' and Reuben Gonzalez's ``The Boiler 
Room.'' He also directed the U.S. premiere of Alan Ayckbourn's ``Mr. 
A's Amazing Maze Plays'' and ``Intimate Exchanges.''
  Today, Craig, not willing to rest on his many past achievements, is 
in rehearsal for the Globe's upcoming production of ``Moonlight and 
Magnolias.''
  In addition to his work at the Globe, Craig was the founder of the 
California Theater Council and a former vice-president of the 
California Confederation of the Arts. Craig has been recognized with 
many awards to include inclusion by the San Diego Union-Tribune on a 
list of 25 persons who shaped the city's history, the Governor's Award 
for the Arts and the University of Arizona Alumni Association's 
Outstanding Citizen for his contribution to their fine arts department.
  Craig has had a distinguished 68-year career and staged over 225 
productions of all styles and periods. Under Craig's devoted but 
demanding care, the Old Globe has developed into a major player in the 
world of theater and a training ground that has nurtured dozens and 
dozens of Broadway and Hollywood luminaries.