Philip Foster Arnoult

1941 - 2024

Philip Foster Arnoult, former Memphian, Founder of the Baltimore Theatre Project and the (CITD) the Center for International Theatre Development, dies at 83, on June 30.

Philip Arnoult was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 19, 1941, to Mary Highberger Arnoult and Phil Canale Arnoult. A friend of the family did his astrological chart and wrote: ""The male child Philip will be a man of the theater and public service."" It was stunningly accurate.

The day after he graduated from CBC High School (CBHS), he was hired by the Front Street Theater, performing in the basement of the King Cotton Hotel. As a young man in the 1960s Philip would direct plays at the Memphis Holiday Inn Dinner Theater.

Phillip organized his first independent 50 seat theatre, the Market Theatre, at the old ""Curb Market"", a farmers' market. Years later Phillip would work with Jackie Nichols, head of Playhouse on the Square at the time, as a consultant for the National Endowment for the Arts.

Phillip's first wife, Barbara Neill of Memphis, his college sweetheart, tragically died in 1974. He continued to act at Memphis State and then as a graduate student at Catholic University in Washington DC. From 1965 to 1968 Philip directed theater for American soldiers stationed in Germany, for the Army's entertainment program.

In 1971 he founded the Baltimore Theatre Project which hosted new and experimental theater and dance from around the world. His second wife, Carol Baish, became his partner in all his projects and together they raised, Alison, Philip's daughter from his marriage with Barbara.

Since 1976 he had traveled the world as a US representative of the UNESCO-backed International Theatre Institute (ITI). In 1991 he founded the Center for International Theatre Development (CITD), through which he fostered cultural exchanges and collaborations among artists from Russia, Europe, the Americas, and East Africa. When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Arnoult and the scholar of Russian theater, John Freedman, started the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings project, presenting new works by Ukrainian playwrights written under wartime conditions.

Arnoult is survived by his daughter Alison Arnoult Van Pelt (Wells) of Charlotte NC, his brother Michael Arnoult (Gwen) of Germantown TN, three stepsons, Michael Brann of Newton MA, Terry Brann of Frederick MD and Sean Brann of Somerville MA, many grandchildren and cousins.

Saturday, August 3rd at 10AM a Funeral Mass will be held at St Louis Catholic Church,` 203 S. White Station Road Memphis TN 38117 - Reception follows in the parish hall.

Memorials may be sent to the (CITD) Center for International Theatre Development 1519 W. 36th St. Baltimore, MD 21211 or https://www.citd.us/arnoult-memorial-fund, The Baltimore Theatre Project 45 W. Preston Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, Christian Brothers High School, 5900 Walnut Grove Rd. Memphis, TN 38120, Immersed In Christ 2095 Exeter Road, suite 80, Germantown, TN 38138 or a charity of the donor's choice.