Noel, founder of SD's Old Globe theater, dies

[April 20, 2010]  SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Craig Noel, the founding director of the Old Globe theater in San Diego's Balboa Park, has died. He was 94.

The theater says Noel died of natural causes Saturday at his San Diego home.

The Old Globe theater was built for an international exhibition in 1935. Noel helped the community troupe based at the temporary structure grow into an internationally known theater that staged Shakespeare plays and sent new dramatic work to Broadway.

He joined the group as a 22-year-old actor, started directing two years later and took a brief break to serve in World War II.

Noel was named resident director in 1947 and made the Globe the first professional Actors' Equity theater on the West Coast in 1949 when the San Diego National Shakespeare Festival debuted.

He directed more than 200 works and produced 270.

[Associated Press]

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