Across the top of this typical summer stock playbill we will recognize the names of Dorothy McGuire, Jane Wyatt, Mel Ferrer, Mildred Natwick, but here we find them in a different setting not the end credits of a film, but on a small-town summer stock program. Appearing not in a film noir or "weeper," but the English classic, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde in the town's high school auditorium, a couple of hours south of Los Angeles. It is 1949.

The La Jolla Playhouse was founded by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, and Mel Ferrer as an outlet to their passion for the stage, and their regret at being so restricted by film studio contracts that they were not allowed to perform on Broadway between films.

Starting a theatre company is always chancy, walking a financial tightrope and needing to find backers, and community support and to build an audience. It was not always easy for the La Jolla Playhouse, founded in 1947. The three actor-producers juggled their responsibilities at the playhouse and their personal careers for some years, aided by Dorothy McGuire's husband, John Swope (whose own interest in theater harkened back to the days of the University Players on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where he was pals with Henry Fonda and James Stewart).

The lure of the stage is very strong for actors who are passionate about the workshop atmosphere, about improving their skills, immediate audience reaction, and the thrill of the flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants experience that isn't found in the controlled environment of a film set. It was for Gregory Peck, who worked on the planning for this theatre company while he was shooting Gentlemen's Agreement (1947). Dorothy McGuire was also in the cast of that film.

Stage work allowed them to stretch different acting muscles. It allowed them to play against type: film heroes got to be stage villains, and minor film character actors got to be stars.

Author Gary Fishgall in Gregory Peck – A Biography notes that the La Jolla Playhouse cast of visiting Hollywood actors rehearsed a play for a week. The play then ran for a week, opening on Tuesday and closing on Sunday. There were additional matinees on Wednesday and Saturday. Sets were "struck" on Monday and the new set moved into the high school auditorium. On Monday evening, the actors got their first dress rehearsal on stage for the opening the next night. It was that hectic. Since the actors were paid only $55 per week, plus hotel accommodation and two meals a day, as noted in Gregory Peck  – A Charmed Life by Lynn Haney, we can only assume it was a very rewarding experience for these film actors who were normally paid thousands of dollars per year.

The La Jolla Playhouse put on ten shows each summer. The first one was Night Must Fall with Dame May Whitty, who re-created her film role. She had played the same role on the London stage and on Broadway. Apparently, this high school auditorium gig wasn't too beneath her. That's a trouper.

Others who performed with this fledging group, escaping their film shackles if only for a week, include Eve Arden, Ann Blyth, Una O'Connor, Robert Walker, Patricia Neal, Vincent Price, Joan Bennett, Charlton Heston, Laraine Day, Joseph Cotten, Jennifer Jones, Leon Ames, June Lockhart, Wendell Corey, Craig Stevens, Teresa Wright, Raymond Massey, Mary Wickes, Marsha Hunt, Beulah Bondi, Pat O'Brien, Richard Egan, Fay Wray, Groucho Marx, Allen Jenkins, David Niven, Jan Sterling, Olivia de Havilland, Kent Smith, and of course, the three founders: Mel Ferrer, Gregory Peck, and Dorothy McGuire.

Co-starring in The Voice of the Turtle was a New York stage actress named Vivian Vance. Lucille Ball attended the show (stars not only appeared on stage at La Jolla, they made a grand audience as well), and Lucy was so impressed with Miss Vance's work, she invited her to become her sidekick on a new TV show she was about to produce with her husband, Desi Arnaz. The show was “I Love Lucy,” and Ethel Mertz was born.

Our Town featured Millard Mitchell, with Ann Blyth as Emily; opposite Marshall Thompson as George. Beulah Bondi, and Edgar Buchanan rounded out the top-notch cast of Hollywood escapees. Mel Ferrer directed the show.

The communal experience shared by actors and technical staff and audience is unique to the theatre because it is live and simultaneous. It is a magical moment, quickly gone, but a cherished memory.

Even if remembered only by someone stumbling across 60-year-old playbills.

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star. and Movies in Our Time: Hollywood Mirrors and Mimics the Twentieth Century, available online at Amazon, CreateSpace, and the author. Website: www.JacquelineTLynch.com.