Sherwood C. Collins, theater professor, director
Hyfler/Rosner
By Dave Santino, Globe Correspondent
Sherwood C. Collins, a retired Tufts University professor known to his
students as Doc and to his friends and relatives as Jerry, died Tuesday at
New England Medical Center in Boston. He was 79.
Dr. Collins grew up in Dwight, Kan. He enrolled at Kansas State University
but put off his undergraduate studies to enlist in the Eighth Army Air Force
during World War II. Dr. Collins flew in 26 missions over Germany, 11 as a
lead bombardier, and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross.
He returned to Kansas State after the war and earned a bachelor of
science degree in journalism and radio. He later earned a master of fine
arts degree and a doctorate in drama, with a specialty in playwriting, from
the State University of Iowa.
He taught at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and also at the
Milwaukee campus, before joining Tufts University's department of drama and
dance in 1961.
Dr. Collins, who specialized in American theater history and American
realism, directed 35 plays at the college, including "Long Day's Journey
into Night," "Our Town," "All My Sons," and "Toys in the Attic."
He was a leading force behind the construction of Tufts's Marston Balch
Arena Theater. Dr. Collins also helped develop a creative arts program for
children ages 7 to 12 and a playwriting workshop for adults.
He was department chairman from 1981 to 1993, and retired from teaching in
1994.
In 1982, the Tufts Summer Theater performed "The Little Foxes." Globe
reviewer John Engstrom wrote, ". . . You've got to hand it to the Tufts
Arena Theater for taking this old potboiler and really making it cook. . . .
Director Sherwood Collins's choreography of the actors is fluid but tight,
his pacing of the action swift but varied in tempo."
Dr. Collins told the Globe in 1987, "The years have been filled with
fulfillment and frustration, insight and oversight," in reference to his
work with the Tufts Summer Theater, which at the time had spanned more than
20 years.
He also helped the Magic Circle Children's Theater when it expanded during
the late 1970s and early 1980s. When the theater celebrated its 50th
anniversary last year, Dr. Collins told the Globe, "Thanks to the passionate
persuasion of two high school theater teachers with the group at the time,
Paula Sampson and Kate Thayer, I realized we were evolving it into the
dynamic production it is today."
Dr. Collins was a member of the Massachusetts High School Drama Guild and
created a high school playwriting competition now named in his honor. The
guild later named him an honorary member for life.
He had also been a member of the New England Theater Conference since 1961.
He was the group's president from 1973 to 1974, served on its executive
board, then returned to the presidency for a second term. Dr. Collins was
one of nine people elected to the charter group of the conference's College
of Fellows in October 1981.
He was a panelist, guest speaker, and conference planner for several other
organizations such as the Association for Theater in Higher Education.
"It [drama] was his whole life," Julie Collins of Lexington said of her
husband. "Tufts and the drama department was everything to him."
In addition to his wife, Dr. Collins leaves a son, Steven, of Reading; a
daughter, Carolyn, of Charlestown; a sister, Jessie Gray, of Baton Rouge,
La.; a brother, John, of Junction City, Kan.; two grandchildren, James and
Julia Collins; and several nieces and nephews.
A service will be held tomorrow at 2 p.m. in the Parish of the Epiphany in
Winchester. Burial will be private.