Haila Stoddard (1953)

There are many special alumni of the Historic Elitch Theatre, but Haila Stoddard is truly “one of our own”. She began as a Leading Lady in Summer Stock, but eventually was a producer at the theatre. While starring at the theatre, Haila met Whitfield Connor and they married and worked together for many years at the theatre. Her son, Christopher Kirkland, was the manager for the final years of the theatre. The success of years of our summer productions are due to her dedication and commitment to HET.

Stoddard was born on Nov. 14, 1913, in Great Falls, Mont., and first appeared on Broadway in 1934 in the title role of “Yes, My Darling Daughter.” She toured the South Pacific in a 1945 USO production of “The Man Who Came to Dinner.” She would go on to act in at least 14 Broadway shows.

She was Rosalind Russell’s stand-by in Broadway’s “Auntie Mame,” but didn’t get a chance to play the lead until Russell’s successor, Greer Garson, was indisposed after her first performance.

Stoddard replaced Elaine Stritch as the matinee Martha for the original 1962 Broadway production of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” When Uta Hagen left the Broadway production to open the show in London, Stoddard performed the role of Martha eight times a week for a time.
[https://www.denverpost.com/2011/02/24/haila-stoddard-a-force-from-broadway-to-the-elitch-theatre/]

We celebrate Haila as one of the greatest stars in Denver. More from the Denver Post Obituary:

Haila Stoddard, an actress and producer who brought star-studded productions from Broadway to Denver’s historic Elitch Theatre from 1972 to 1987, died Monday in Weston, Conn. She was 97.

Stoddard was the first producer to bring both James Thurber (“A Thurber Carnival”) and Harold Pinter (“The Birthday Party”) to Broadway. But she was best known as wicked Aunt Pauline on TV’s “The Secret Storm” from 1953-71.

Stoddard was part of a producing trio also made up of Denver Post owner Helen Bonfils and eventual Denver Center for the Performing Arts founder Donald Seawell. They called themselves Bonard Productions (a combination of the Bonfils and Stoddard names), and together they produced at least six Broadway shows from 1960-63, earning a Tony Award nomination in 1962 for Noel Coward’s “Sail Away.” That same year, Stoddard played Martha in Broadway’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.”

Stoddard also teamed with Bonfils in producing the annual Elitch Theatre summer season starting in 1962. Following Bonfils’ death in 1972, Stoddard, with then-husband Whitfield Connor and Kirkland, fulfilled their promise to a dying Bonfils and ran the world’s oldest summer-stock company in northwest Denver for another 15 years.

[https://www.denverpost.com/2011/02/24/haila-stoddard-a-force-from-broadway-to-the-elitch-theatre/]

Seasons at the Theatre

1953
1975
1976
1985

Productions/Roles:

Notable Roles, Awards, and Other Work:

Stoddard appeared for sixteen years as Pauline Rysdale in The Secret Storm from 1954 to 1970.
Stoddard created Bonard Productions Incorporated, with Helen Bonfils in 1960.
Stoddard produced A Thurber Carnival, a Tony Award-winning musical, her first production on Broadway, with Helen Bonfils. A later production, at the Central City Opera House, featured Thurber himself, then blind, as narrator.
Stoddard and Bonfils created the production company — Bonard — which took its name from the first three letters of Bonfils, and the last three letters of Stoddard.