Orson Welles became a professional actor in 1918 at the age of three playing the child role of "Trouble" in Chicago opera's production of Madame Butterfly with Claudia Muzio in the title role. At age ten, Welles adapted, produced, directed and performed his own production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

At the Todd School, between the years 1926 and 1931 Welles directed and frequently performed in some thirty plays. In 1931, Orson traveled to Ireland and presented himself to the Gate Theatre in Dublin as a professional actor, at the age of 16.

In 1936, Welles mounted an historic production of Macbeth at the Negro Theatre in Harlem. With backing from the Federal Theatre (WPA), Welles went on to form the famous Mercury Theatre, beginning with a production of Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock.

Supremely confident, and with a seemingly limitless reserve of energy and inspiration, Welles took his company of Mercury players to network radio and soon thereafter to Hollywood for their first film together, Citizen Kane.

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