Rachel Crothers
Broadway Innovator, Feminist Pioneer
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- $46.99
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- $46.99
Publisher Description
This is the story behind one of the most important – yet largely forgotten – women in American theater during the early 20th century.
Rachel Crothers was renowned for her ability to command all aspects of a stage production-unusual for playwrights and even more so for a woman of this time period. Rachel Crothers: Broadway Innovator, Feminist Pioneer celebrates her remarkable skill and feminism, from her experiences as a young actress in Illinois and New York to the success of her first play in 1906 and beyond. Crothers integrated themes of double standards, prostitution, and women's rights in her work, and she went on to become President of the Stage Women's War Relief Fund through both World Wars and the Great Depression. Incorporating extensive archival material, this book also discusses each of Crother's plays with careful consideration for her attention to detail, character influences, motivations for social justice, and creative vision.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bassett (William Faulkner), former president of Clark University, delivers a dry biography of queer playwright Rachel Crothers. Born in Bloomington, Ill., in 1870, Crothers moved to New York City in 1896 with hopes of becoming an actor. Though those dreams were dashed, they gave way to a fruitful writing and directing career. Crothers, who died in 1958, staged 24 plays on Broadway between 1906 and 1938, developing a style that employed "realistic everyday dialogue—or, more precisely, what is made to appear that to an audience," complex female characters, and feminist themes. (The 1910 play A Man's World, which stars a feminist writer who rejects a suitor's proposal, critiques double standards that excuse male immorality, according to Bassett, though she notes that Crothers's later plays highlight ways in which women must accommodate to patriarchal society.) Studies of Crothers have been confined to dissertations and scholarly publications, so this exploration of her life is welcome, but Bassett's perfunctory prose and reliance on summaries of the plays (with few examples of Crothers's actual writing) make the account feel like an extended encyclopedia entry. It adds up to a well-meaning but less-than-satisfying portrait of an overlooked pioneer of American theater.
