Theater Credits / The Princeton Years

Always the rebel of his prestigious family, the teenaged Melchor Ferrer had firmly determined not to attend college. He wanted to write - probably for the theater - and he simply couldn't see how college would help. It was with great reluctance that he finally succumbed to his Mother's insistent demands and enrolled in Princeton University in time for the Fall 1935 semester. He was 18, recently graduated from Canterbury Preparatory School and with two summers at The Cape Summer Theater in Dennis, Massachusetts in his resume.

Much to young Melchor's surprise, he found an instant niche at Princeton by joining Theatre Intime, the student dramatic society, where he was immediately accepted and remained active for the entire two years he was a student at the school. One of the interviews Mel gave years later was with a young woman whose brother had been Mel's classmate, and she remembers him during a performance of "Peer Gynt" as "dashing about backstage, leaping to do a part before the footlights, generally making himself useful." Although this sounds very much like the Mel Ferrer of later years his garb does not. She recalls that his "usual costume was a pair of old grey flannels, a shirt with the sleeves rolled up and saddle shoes, the whole sometimes streaked with paint or dirt from working backstage." It does create a picture of Mel during these years, however, as a man determined to know everything about the theater from every aspect of the profession.

Mel's firm intention had been to remain at Princeton for only a year, but by the end of his Freshman year he'd decided to win the annual Theatre Intime contest for the best play written by a Princeton undergraduate. Though seniors were given decided preference in the judging, 19-year-old sophomore Melchor G. Ferrer won the award in March of 1937 with a comedy entitle "Awhile to Work." The $50 prize offered him the opportunity to write, direct and act in his own production, which he did during the Spring of 1937. The positive reception of his play coupled with the fact he was elected Secretary of Theatre Intime in May of that year, indicate he wavered briefly in his resolve to leave school, but shortly after returning in the Fall of 1937, 20-year-old Melchor Ferrer left higher education forever. Years later he would remember his days at Princeton as "very enjoyable," but he never regretted his decision to move on.

Princeton being an all-male university at that time, Theatre Intime had to import its female actors and most of their productions depended heavily on the Finch School For Girls based in New York City. One of the young ladies imported for "Peer Gynt" in the Spring of 1936 was Frances Pilchard, a socialite from Salisbury, Maryland, who was just three months younger than Mel. She must have possessed a similar rebellious streak, for not only did she become Melchor's girlfriend and eventual co-star in his award winning play, but in October of 1937 they eloped to Tahoe. Neither ever returned to college but instead traveled on to Mexico to begin a bohemian life as artists - he to write and she to sculpt.

The following is a complete list of credits for Melchor G. Ferrer during his two years at Princeton University:

CHILDREN OF DARKNESS
Actor	Princeton	McCarter Theater	11/22/1935-11/23/1935
PASTORALE
Actor	Princeton	Murray Theater	03/04/1936 - 03/06/1936
TALK OF THE TOWN
Actor	Princeton	Murray Theater	03/13/1936 - 03/16/1936
PEER GYNT
Actor	Princeton	McCarter Theater	05/01/1936 - 05/02/1936
PEER GYNT
Actor	New York	Lenox Little Theater	05/04/1936
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST
Actor	Princeton	Murray Theater	10/21/1936 - 10/24/1936
AWHILE TO WORK
Playwright / Director / Actor	Princeton	Murray Theater	03/17/1937 - 03/24/1937
THE TEMPEST
Actor	Princeton	McCarter Theater	04/30/1937 - 05/01/1937

Princeton University's Memorial to Mel Ferrer

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