WILMINGTON, DE.- The newest addition to
Arcadia Publishing’s popular Images of America series is DuPont Theatre from local author and agent of DuPont, Joanna L. Arat. The book boasts more than 200 vintage images and memories of days gone by on the stage, and behind the curtain.
Long known as “Delaware’s Broadway Experience,” the DuPont Theatre is the embodiment of the entertainment phrase, “The show must go on!” It has survived dramatic and traumatic historical events, including the 1929 stock market crash, the Great Depression, two world wars, the rise of motion pictures and television, a name change from the Playhouse to the DuPont Theatre, and a terrorist attack on our country that resonated globally.
Despite these events, it continues to thrive as the oldest continuously operating legitimate theater in the United States. Constructed in only 150 days and strategically located adjacent to the elegant Hotel du Pont and DuPont corporate headquarters, the DuPont Theatre is a mainstay in the cultural life of Wilmington. Promoted in the early 1900s as a “dress rehearsal” venue for the largest New York Broadway shows, the stage can accommodate everything from live animals to an automobile accident, making it possible to present nearly every Broadway production in the theater’s Broadway series.
Highlights of DuPont Theatre:
• The book commemorates the DuPont Theatre’s 100th season of Broadway entertainment.
• A majority of the images in the book were collected from the DuPont Theatre Archives and the Hagley Museum and Library.
• The book offers a detailed behind-the-scenes backstage tour of the private spaces, staff, and safety procedures vital to putting on a successful Broadway production.
Arcadia Publishing is the leading publisher of local and regional history in the United States. Our mission is to make history accessible and meaningful through the publication of books on the heritage of America’s people and places.
Joanna L. Arat, 30, is a native to Wilmington, DE, and no stranger to DuPont. Her father was a DuPont employee for 24 years when she earned her first position with the company.
A 2003 graduate of the University of Delaware in Newark, Arat studied English with a concentration in film and a minor in Spanish. It wasn’t until after college that she pursued a career in hospitality. She began working full-time at the DuPont Country Club, a position she maintained for six years before joining the DuPont Hospitality Marketing Team, located in the Hotel du Pont. Through this position, she was offered the outstanding opportunity to commemorate the DuPont Theatre’s Centennial Season with this history book.
Arat currently resides in Pike Creek, DE, a suburb of Wilmington, with her husband and twin sons. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading, and online blogging about her children.
She feels privileged to use her skills and college education towards such a meaningful project. It has been an unforgettable experience for her to be a part of the DuPont Theatre’s 100th Centennial Season, and she is delighted to share these images and stories with community.
