June 5, 12, 1949

The production of Mark Twain’s The Prince and The Pauper drew almost 800 to the opening performance. Lois Sandall directed the play which had been dramatized by Charlotte B. Chorpenning, and the costumes were by Dorothy Lahr.

A full-page Seattle newspaper article, illustrated with Forest Theatre pictures, helped attract 1,200 persons to the following Sunday’s show. Many of them were making their first visit to the Theatre and Rhododendron Preserve. For both performances the weather cooperated perfectly.

“... For many of them it was a first experience in the forests of the Olympic Peninsula. For others it was doubly pleasurable because it gave them a chance to show off the beauty of the Puget Sound country to visitors who marveled at the stately trees, the rhododendron-covered slopes and the forest undergrowth.

“Magnificently attired, the ladies and gentlemen of the court moved about the stage. The herald (mounted on a real live horse), appeared at the gate. The thieves and beggars of the London slums held their drunken revel. And it all ended happily, with the rightful prince crowned and seated on a convincing replica of the ancient throne used in the coronation of the English kings.”

 Ellen Walsh, The Mountaineer, 1949