Women in Turmoil: Six Plays by Mercedes de Acosta (Theater in the Americas) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0809325101 ISBN 13: 9780809325108

Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press, 2008

Synopsis

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In this first publication of six plays by the flamboyantly uninhibited author, poet, and playwright Mercedes de Acosta (1893–1968), theater historian Robert A. Schanke rescues these lost theatrical writings from the dusty margins of obscurity. Often autobiographical, always rife with gender struggle, and still decidedly stageworthy, Women in Turmoil: Six Plays by Mercedes de Acosta constitutes a significant find for the canon of gay and lesbian drama.

In her 1960 autobiography Here Lies the Heart, de Acosta notes that as she was contemplating marriage to a man in 1920, she was "in a strange turmoil about world affairs, my own writing, suffrage, sex, and my inner spiritual development." The voice in these plays is that of a lesbian in turmoil, marginalized and ignored. Her same-sex desires and struggles for acceptance fueled her writings, and nowhere is that more evident than in the plays contained herein. The women characters struggle with unfulfilling marriages, divorce, unrequited sexual desire, suppressed identity, and a longing for recognition.

Of the six plays, only the first two were ever produced. Jehanne d’Arc (1922) premiered in Paris with de Acosta’s lover at the time, Eva Le Gallienne, starring and Norman Bel Geddes designing the set and lights. In 1934, de Acosta adapted it into a screenplay for Greta Garbo, then her lover, but it was never filmed. Portraying rampant anti-Semitism in a small New England town, Jacob Slovak (1923) was performed both on Broadway and in London, with the London production starring John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson.

The Mother of Christ (1924) is a long one-act play written for the internationally known actress Eleonora Duse. After Duse’s death, several other actresses including Eva Bartok, Jeanne Eagels, and Lillian Gish explored productions of the play. Igor Stravinsky wrote a score, Norman Bel Geddes designed a set, and Gladys Calthrop designed costumes. However, the play was never produced.

Her most autobiographical play, World Without End (1925), and her most sensational play, The Dark Light (1926), both unfold through plots of sibling rivalry, incest, and suicide. With overtones of Ibsen, Illusion (1928) continues the themes of de Acosta’s previous plays with her rough and seedy cast of characters, but here the playwright’s drama grows to incorporate a yearning for belonging as well as strong elements of class conflict.

What notoriety remains associated with de Acosta has less to do with her writing than with her infamous romances with the likes of Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Isadora Duncan, Alla Nazimova, Eva Le Gallienne, Tamara Karsavina, Pola Negri, and Ona Munson. Through this collection of six powerfully poignant dramas, editor Robert A. Schanke strives to correct myths about Mercedes de Acosta and to restore both her name and her literary achievements to their proper place in history.

Robert A. Schanke has authored the original biography, “That Furious Lesbian:” The Story of Mercedes de Acosta, also available from Southern Illinois University Press.

About this title

About the Author:

Robert A. Schanke is a professor of theater at Central College, Iowa. He is the editor of the international journal Theatre History Studies and the Southern Illinois University Press series Theater in the Americas. His five other books include Eva Le Gallienne: A Bio-Bibliography and Shattered Applause: The Lives of Eva Le Gallienne, a finalist for both the Lambda Literary Award and the Barnard Hewitt Award for theater research.

Review:

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“Robert A. Schanke has rustled up a treasure trove of wonderfully hotheaded plays by Mercedes de Acosta. I hope that the discovery of these neglected and forgotten dramas will lead to rambunctious new productions and a celebration of this fantastic woman who haunted our theatrical landscape during the first half of the last century.”—Ann Bogart, artistic director of the SITI Company and author of A Director Prepares: Seven Essays on Art and Theatre

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“It is a pleasure to become better acquainted with Mercedes de Acosta. . . . Six of de Acosta’s plays, now edited and made available by Robert A. Schanke, rescue her from a vague, shadowy existence, and allow her to assume a strong identity of her own. These plays, quite varied in their subjects and contexts, reveal a writer with strong dramatic sensitivity and emotional power.”—Oscar Brockett, coauthor of History of the Theatre and The Essential Theatre

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About this edition

• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0809325101
• ISBN 13: 9780809325108
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: Schanke Robert A