THEATRE TCU HISTORY

Henry Hammack

Henry “Hank” E. Hammack was born in Kansas City, Kansas, in 1928. He attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington as a piano student, then served in the United States Marine Corps from 1950-1953 as Morse code radio operator. He returned to the University of Washington School of Drama where he earned a BA in 1956, and an MA in 1962. Later, he was to earn his Ph.D. in theatre from Tulane University in 1967. He joined the theatre faculty at TCU in 1957, and taught at TCU for 37 years until his retirement in 1994.

Dr. Hammack originally was hired at TCU as the Designer and Technical Director, but during his long career he was a true Renaissance man of the theatre, teaching and creating in virtually every area of the discipline. During his TCU years, Dr. Hammack designed scenery for more than 25 productions, designed and constructed costumes for more than 30, directed more than 70, and acted in a few TCU productions as well, including On Borrowed Time (1984), Brigadoon (1984), On Golden Pond (1982) with colleague Dr. Gaylan Collier, Our Town (1989), and Death of a Salesman (1991). The courses he taught through those years is essentially a litany of the catalogue: Introduction to Theatre, Stagecraft, Scene Design, Theatre Lighting, Stage Makeup, Wigmaking, History of Costume, Costume Pattern Drafting, Literature and Criticism, Theatre History, all levels of Acting from beginning to advanced, Stage Speech and Diction. He advanced from the rank of Instructor to a tenured Professor, and served as the Chair of the Department a number of times, the last in 1980-1982. He is currently Professor Emeritus.

Dr. Hammack also worked extensively in theatre away from TCU, especially as an actor. His stage resume includes more than 40 different productions, including A Month of Sundays and The Rainmaker at Circle Theatre, Carousel, Fiddler on the Roof, and The Drunkard for Casa Manana, A Streetcar Named Desire at Caravan of Dreams, and Our Town, The Rainmaker, and Mame for Fort Worth Theatre. He has also appeared in nearly a hundred broadcast commercials and print advertisements, as well as several industrial and feature films including The Trip to Bountiful with Geraldine Page.

Dr. Hammack was married to Betty Jean Tongue from 1955 until her death in 1988. They have two sons, Stephen and Scott Hammack. In 1989, he married Joyce Stevens who has two children, Barbara Harrison and Daniel Stevens. Together, Hank and Joyce now have 8 grandchildren. The Hammacks are retired and live in Fort Worth.