Ellen Van Volkenburg

Ellen Van Volkenburg (October 8, 1882 – December 15, 1978), born Nellie Van Volkenburg in Battle Creek, Michigan, was a leading actress, director, puppeteer and theater educator in the United States and the UK.

Career
Educated at the University of Michigan, Van Volkenburg has been credited, along with her then-husband Englishman Maurice Browne, with being the founder of the Little Theatre Movement in America through their work with the Chicago Little Theatre.



Van Volkenburg and Browne went on to found the department of drama at the Cornish School in Seattle in 1918, now Cornish College of the Arts. In 1921, Browne and Volkenburg acted in the performance of George Bernard Shaw's The Philanderer at the Cornish School playhouse.

Although she divorced Maurice Browne in 1922, for much of her life she signed herself "Ellen Van Volkenburg Browne."

At the operning night of the Theatre of the Golden Bough, Volkenburg had the title-role in Maurice Browne's play, The Mother of Gregory, which played June 6, 7, and 14, 1924.

Death
She died on December 15, 1978.