About Mac THDA

The Ruth Easton Endowment supports equity among our majors and minors by annually funding their participation in professional workshops on campus, attendance to professional conferences and to performances in the Twin Cities, academic year and summer internships in the Twin Cities, academic awards, and the Late Summer Residency with professional artists at Tofte Lake Center. These experiences have effectively complemented the learning experiences that the Theater and Dance Department curriculum can offer and prepared our majors and minors to successfully enter the creative economy and workforce. 

The Theater and Dance Department is grateful to the Ruth Easton Endowment for the Dramatic Arts for its support of many Theater and Dance Department activities. Ruth Edelstein Easton, Macalester Class of 1921, was born and raised in North Branch, Minnesota. After graduation, Ruth studied for a year at Macalester before leaving the Midwest to pursue an acting career in Los Angeles. From there, she moved to New York City, where a friend introduced her to producer Oliver Morosco. Soon after, Ruth was on Broadway, acting with stars such as Clark Gable, Douglas Fairbanks, Ethel Barrymore, Judith Anderson, Walter Huston, and Al Jolson. She was also actively involved in radio dramas, performing in such shows as “The Rudy Valle Hour” and “The Fleischmann’s Yeast Hour.” Later inheriting the fortune of her brothers—Dave and Jack Edelstein, who invented a paper-coating process considered the predecessor of plastic wrap—Ruth donated both time and money to acting programs throughout the country. She served as a benefactor for many Twin Cities theaters, including the Ordway, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, and the Playwrights’ Center. When Ruth Edelstein Easton passed away in 1998, the Ruth Easton Endowment Fund was her gift to the Theater and Dance Department at Macalester. The Ruth Easton Fund facilitates the Theater and Dance Department's relationship with the Twin Cities arts community in a myriad of ways, including support for arts residencies and internships at local arts organizations for our majors and minors, and hosting national and international guest artists on campus.