Dorothy Colonius (1906-1979) was a respected teacher and community leader.

After graduating from Alton’s Shurtleff College, Miss Colonius earned her Master’s Degree in English at the University of Chicago. She taught in the Alton School District for over thirty years, retiring in 1967. For most of that time she served as chair of the English Department. The stellar results and the respect she got from her countless students made her the envy of her peers. In 1953 she was awarded a grant from the Ford Foundation which allowed her to take a year’s leave of absence so that she could attend for one semester the University of Iowa Department of Theater and to travel the rest of the year throughout the country visiting universities and communities, observing their theater programs. She made such an impression at the University of Iowa that she was invited to direct the Iowa Summer High School Theater Workshop for three years.

In 1960 the Madison County Federation of Women’s Clubs chose her as Teacher of the Year. Next to teaching, Miss Colonius’ great love was theater. In the early 1930’s she and two of her friends founded Alton Little Theater, a non-professional community theater. By 1936 she had, by default, become the permanent director of the organization, a position she held to the end of her life. When she became aware of how little formal training she had in theater directing, she enrolled at Cornell University for specific training in that field. Under her care and direction the group thrived, and at this writing (2010) was celebrating its 77 th anniversary. For the first few years of their existence, Alton Little Theater performed wherever they could find a space, eventually arriving at the Alton High School auditorium, which was its home until 1960. It was that year that the members proudly opened a new, rather small playing space which they called The Showplace.

Since that memorable opening, the facility has been expanded and now houses the Dorothy Colonius Foyer and a 230 seat theater, in addition to two outbuilding used for storage and set building. Members of the theater and the community alike are quick to give Dorothy Colonius credit for keeping the group on track so that the theater could continue to progress even after her death. As important as teaching and Little Theater were to her life, there were other interests as well. She was a member of the American Association of University Women, Zonta Club, Women’s Volunteer League, Alton Area Animal Aid Association and alton Citizens for Better Government. She was at one time division president of the Illinois Southwestern Education Association.

She loved to travel, and in 1960 she spent the entire summer traveling through 17 European countries. Dorothy Colonius liked the word “amateur”. It came from the Latin for “love”. An amateur is one who does what he does for love, love of a sport, love of painting, of singing--or love of theater. This is why she worked so hard for most of her life to help establish a community theater in Alton. She lived and died in her beloved Alton, where she gained area-wide respect for her intellectual capacity, her friendly personality and her many accomplishments.

Dorothy Colonius