League of America contest in 1927. Spring Sluicing takes place in the northwest and Alaska. The play was performed in Portland in the fall of 1927. Woman's clubs, like the Fortnightly Club of Eugene did readings of Spring Sluicing. Spring Sluicing was published in Goin' Home, And Other Plays of the 1927 Contest (1929). Later, it was published again in the collection, High Country (1935), which also contained other plays written by Ernst. The Salt Lake Tribune wrote that Ernst's plays "possess strong dramatic power." She published "Dramatic Trails of the Northwest" in Theatre Arts Magazine in 1927. In 1930, Theater Arts Magazine published her one-act play, The Valley of Lost Men. Also in 1930, OU's Guild Theatre debuted her play, Afternoon of a Nymph. Nymph described as a fantasy set in modern times. In 1932, the Portland Civic Theatre performed Welcome Stranger. Stranger is a "study of manners several thousand years ago and in this modern day," according to The Salt Lake Tribune. A performance of The Wooden Wife in 1936 by the Very Little Theatre (VLT) in Eugene included piano music written and performed by George Hopkins. The Wooden Wife takes place in a Native American dwelling. The play won first place at the Northwest Writers' Conference. In 1938, she published another collection of plays, Backstage in Xanadu, which included illustrations by Constance Cole. The book included the plays Cloistered Calm, Welcome Stranger, Nightingale and Afternoon of a Nymph. Cloistered Calm is a comedy about "underpaid professors," while Nightingale is a romance set in Bagdad. She was again published in Theatre Arts Magazine in 1939, with an illustrated article called "Northwest Animal Dances." Ernst's poetry appeared in the anthology, Mid-Country: Writings From the Heart of America (1945). Her play, Way Out There, a "comic-drama," set in the Oregon of the 1800s, was performed at VLT in 1946. Ernst's history of theater in Oregon, Trouping in the Oregon Country (1961), was considered "enjoyable" by historian, Kenneth L. Holmes, of the Eugene Guard. The book won first place from the Oregon Press Women (OPW). The book was a culmination of a decade's worth of research. Publications References External links Guide to the Alice Henson Ernst papers at the University of Oregon. High Country on Google Books 1880 births 1980 deaths American women dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights University of Washington alumni University of Oregon faculty 20th-century American