Synopsis
Edith Craig and the Theatres of Art
$35.00 Published by Methuen
At London's Lyceum Theatre in its heyday she worked alongside her mother, Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and Bram Stoker, and gained valuable experience
She was a key figure in creating innovative art theatre work
As director and founder of the Pioneer Players in 1911 she supported the production of women's suffrage drama, becoming a pioneer of theatre aimed at social reform
In 1915 she assumed a leading role with the Pioneer Players in bringing international art theatre to Britain and introducing London audiences to expressionist and feminist drama from Nikolai Evreinov to Susan Glaspell
She captured the imagination of Virginia Woolf, inspiring the portrait of Miss LaTrobe in her 1941 novel Between the Acts, and influenced a generation of actors, such as Sybil Thorndike and Edith Evans
Frequently eclipsed in accounts of theatrical endeavour by her younger brother, Edward Gordon Craig, Edith Craig's contribution both to theatre and to the women's suffrage movement receives timely reappraisal in Katharine Cockin's meticulously researched and wide-ranging biography, released for the seventieth anniversary of her death
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Preface: A Note on Sources and More Dramatic Lives
Chapter One : Introduction: Edith Craig Retrospectives
Chapter Two : 1869-1902 Her Mother's Daughter: The Lyceum's Apprentice
Chapter Three : 1903-07 The New Woman Experiments and the Genealogy of the 'Scala masque'
Chapter Four : 1907-1914 The Art of Women's Suffrage Theatre and the 'fire of Prometheus'
Chapter Five : 1911-25 The Pioneer Players as London's Art Theatre
Chapter Six : 1915-25 Post-war Recreation and the Nativity Play
Chapter Seven : 1919-46 The Little Theatre Mission: Pilgrims and Pageants
Chapter Eight : Conclusion: On the Theatres of Art
Bibliography
Index
REVIEWS
"Full of fascinating nuggets of information ... Edith Craig and the Theatres of Art presents a collage of Craig's achievements, celebrating her maverick career." Times Higher Education
SEE ALSO:
Lena Ashwell - Actress, Patriot, Pioneer