l Theatre on a Shoestring

PRESENTS THE VERMONT PREMIERE OF

 

by James Danek

Please note that this is not a gay-themed play.

STARRING

NATHANIEL BACON BOB CARMODY RACHEL DORFMAN KEN HORROCKS
DEAN PRATT MARY SCRIPPS KELLY VVILSON

DIRECTED BY DEAN PRATT STAGE MANAGED BY HEATHER FITCH

June 5-7 0 7:30pm
South Burlington High School

Tickets: $9 adults - $6 children/seniors -
Group rates available for 10 or more tickets

(802) 86_-FLYNN or www.theatreshoe.com
Credit cards via phone/online. Cash/checks at the door only.

 This bo - :1
Do you want to see this show for free? Simply reserve a room at possiblevtlfgthnfb:
University Inn and.Suites in South Burlington for two nights between June 4“"""""‘fr‘:;"“""”"1’
4-7 and receive two complimentary tickets to the show. “I 1' En SIT!

Reservations can be made by going online at www.innvermont.com or

calling (802) 863-5541.
Reserve now as rooms are going fast!

«W

 

 

‘ ‘ II was born a tomboy,”

Charlotte Cushman, one

of the most famous

actresses of the Victorian Era,
said of herself. Charlotte was a
tomboy to such an extent that it
was virtually impossible for her
biographers to gloss over the fact
that she was a lesbian, as happens
in many biographies of such
women. She never married and
was never romantically involved
with a man.

Charlotte was born in
l816 and lived in a period of his-
tory where women were allowed
almost no freedom and had just
about every profession closed -to
them. She was not in the least
pretty but nonetheless rose to
become one of the best-loved
actresses in England and America
for 40 years.

She was the eldest of
four children, and her father left
the family. While her mother
began to take in boarders to keep

‘them afloat, Charlotte left school

to train as a singer. Although her
mother strongly disapproved of
Charlotte’s careeras a stage
actress, she did consider singing
for a church or in recitals a
respectable job.
Right from the begin-

ning Charlotte played male roles
— known as “breeches parts” — as

7, well as strong-willed women

such as Lady Macbeth and Queen
Katherine (Hemy VIIl’s first
wife); she never played the
ingénue or female romantic inter-
est. She became well known for
playing Romeo, a role she first
played at the age of twenty and
reprised again and again through-
out her career, often playing the
Romeo to her Juliets off stage
besides.

It was not unheard of for
actresses of this era to take on
breeches parts despite the rigid
gender roles to which men and
women were expected to adhere
in regular society. It could be
argued that the reason for this
was that the men in the audience
found the novelty of seeing an
actress’s legs in male attire titil-
lating, but Charlotte won the
hearts of her entire audience.

Charlotte’s first success-
es were with a company in
Albany. The next season she
joined the Park Theater in New
York, but when the manager at
the theater there refused to raise
her salary to $25 a week, she
packed up her mother, brother,

Born a Tomboy

sister and nephew and went to
the National Theater in
Philadelphia where she was the
leading stock lady. Next, it was
back to the Park in New York
where the manager offered her
$50 a week for the 1841-42 sea-
son. She opened there as Oberon
in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Then it was back to Philadelphia
in August of 1842 where the 26-
year-old Charlotte was offered
the position of manager at the
Walnut Street Theater, a highly
unusual position for a woman.
Charlotte inspired in one

young woman, Annie Brewster,
an intense “love of the spirit” as
Annie wrote in her diary. For a
while the nature of this friendship
was veiled in the accepted ideal
of Victorian femalefriendship.
But eventually Annie’s brother,

She became
well known for
playing Romeo,

a role she first
played at the

age of twenty
and reprised
again and again
throughout her
career, often‘,
playing Romeo
to her Juliets

off stage besides.

Benjamin — who was the head of
the Brewster household — consid-
ered the relationship ‘wicked’ and
forbade Annie any more contact
with Charlotte. “I shall never
love another as I loved her,”
Annie wrote. . A

Charlotte also hotly pur-
sued the famous English actress I
Fanny Kemble. She had given up
the stage to make a miserable
marriage with a Southern slave
owner, although slavery as an A
institution utterly repelled her.
Charlotte showered Fanny with
flowers, visits and gifts. At first
Fanny responded warmly and
took much comfort in the friend-
ship, but she soon got tired of
Charlotte’s over—zealous
attention.

Fanny did encourage
Charlotte to have her portrait
painted by a relative of her hus-
band’s, Thomas Sully, and in the
course of sitting for him
Charlotte got to know his daugh-
ter Rosalie, an artist in her own
right.

In her diary Charlotte
kept a detailed account ofhcr
life; the roles she played. where
her money went. the letters >>