in Detroit, which opened on January 1, 1925. Backed by a syndicate led by a patron of hers, she bought a former synagogue on Woodward Avenue, Temple Beth El, for $500,000 and commissioned C. Howard Crane to renovate it. At first she carried on producing mostly Broadway-style plays. However, the company did perform classics, including modern-dress productions of Romeo and Juliet in 1926 and Hamlet in 1927, among the first to put on such performances. In February 1928 Bonstelle began a campaign to gain community support for the theater. A fund of over $200,000 was raised by donations from the public and Bonstelle made an agreement with local authorities to make the playhouse the city's unofficial premier theater. Later that year the group became known as the Detroit Civic Theater. In her plan for the theater she emphasized the importance of providing the public with the best drama, including both classics and modern works, and improving young people's knowledge of dramatic literature. Funded by public subscription, it had ticket prices as low as $1.50. Performances included works by Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. The theater also played a religious role. Bonstelle used it in an effort to improve understanding and co-operation between the church and the theater, holding multi-denominational religious services there during Lent, and she stated that her plays, while avoiding being preachy, were intended to have a positive moral influence on the audience. Local clergy publicly praised her work with the theater. In June 1932 Bonstelle went to Hollywood; possible reasons include a desire to direct films, to found an acting school, or to explore the possibility of a new stock company. She returned to Detroit after falling ill and learning she had cancer. There she began a campaign to keep open the Civic Theatre, which was adversely affected by the Great Depression, but became seriously ill. Aided by her secretary, she continued to campaign for and run the theater until her death on October 14, 1932, when she suffered a heart attack at the home of relatives in Detroit. On October 16, her body lay in state at the theater and the New York Times reported that twenty-five thousand people went to see her bier. A memorial service was held there which thousands attended and at which mayor Frank Murphy spoke. She was buried in Rochester next to her husband. Character Bonstelle was a perfectionist