Paul Baker at his home in Waelder, Texas, May 2009. Photo ©2009 by Robert W. Hart.

Paul Baker, laughing, at his home in Waelder, Texas, May 2009. Photo ©2009 by Robert W. Hart.

Paul Baker with his daughter Robyn Baker Flatt and wife, Kitty. Photo ©2009 by Robert W. Hart.

Paul Baker with his daughter Robyn Baker Flatt. Photo ©2009 by Robert W. Hart.

Paul Baker at his desk. Photo ©2009 by Robert W. Hart.

  

Paul Baker, the innovative director and educator who founded the Dallas Theater Center and worked with architect Frank Lloyd Wright to build the Kalita Humphreys Theater, died Sunday at a hospital in the Hill Country, near his ranch in Waelder, Texas. He was 98.

His daughter, Robyn Baker Flatt, said that he contracted pneumonia a few weeks ago, "and he kept going downhill." Flatt is the founder and artistic director of the Dallas Children's Theater.

The death happened during the week that Dallas Theater Center inaugurates its new home at the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. The first production there, A Midsummer Night's Dream, opens on Oct. 30. Fittingly, Flatt plays Egeus in the production, but her part will be read by Joel Ferrell in some of this week's previews, said Dallas Theater Center Public Relations Director Jacob Cignainero. She will play the role in Friday's opening and throughout the run.

Paul Baker graduated from Trinity University in 1932 and began teaching at Baylor University in Waco in 1934. After many innovative productions and world travels, he came to Dallas in 1959 to open the Dallas Theater Center. He remained there until 1982, when he was ousted by the Board of Directors.

Baker also founded Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in 1976, and was its first principal. The school is now a stone's throw from the DTC's new home at the Wyly Theatre.

During his esteemed career at the Dallas Theater Center, he worked with renowned actors, including Burgess Meredith, Zero Mostel and Charles Laughton, who called Baker "irritating, arrogant, nuts—and a genius." In Baker's legendary Hamlet ESP, the Dane was played by three actors, representing the id, ego and superego. Baker wrote the book The Integration of Abilities: Excerices for Creative Growth in 1972, and his theory of using all the senses in creative work has remained a vital part of Flatt's philosophies at the Dallas Children's Theater, which founded the Baker Idea Institute.

A book about Baker and his methods, Paul Baker and the Integration of Abilities, was published in 2003.

You can read a complete biography of Baker here, from the Witcliff Collections at Texas State University in San Marcos. You can also read about him in the Dallas Theater Center's history section on its Web site.

Paul Baker is survived by his wife, Kitty; daughter Robyn Baker Flatt, the founder and artistic director of the Dallas Children's Theater; and daughters Retta and Sallie.

The funeral will be held in Gonzales, Texas, at 2 p.m. on Nov. 5, at the Presbyterian Church of Gonzales.  

Dr. Baker’s remarkable contributions to the fields of theater and education continue to be celebrated and studied the world over. The tools he provided to educators, students, artists, and innovators inspiring creative growth and artistic excellence lives on in those he touched. In addition he was a beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He will be greatly missed.

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