.	DEERTREESTHEATRE&CULTURALCENTER Deertrees Founders: Enrica Clay Dillon & Bela Blau
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Enrica Clay Dillon After nine years in Washington D.C. directing the National Opera Company, three years with the Philadelphia Opera Society, three years directing operas at the Metropolian Opera in New York City and five more as director of the New York Opera Guild, Deertrees Theatre was her dream. Dillon thought the beauty and restful nature of Western Maine was an ideal environment for developing an artist's abilities. She wanted technically perfect acoustics at Deertrees and got them. The theater was built under her direction at a cost of $60,000.		Bela Blau Born in Hungary in 1895, Bela Blau was raised primarily in London and New York City. Originally educated as a CPA, Blau got involved in the New York Theatre Guild by developing an accounting method that was later adopted by other theaters. By the 1930s, however, he was a Broadway producer and director. His collaboration with Dillon lasted only two seasons, but it included an extraordinary nine week festival led by a different big star every week. He accomplished this by bringing an entirely new Broadway cast up to Harrison, Maine from New York. Tragically, Blau died from a heart attack in his doctor's office on October 21, 1940. He was only 44 years old.