#ellen tree

[theladyactress]

Anna Cora Mowatt and What’s in a Name - Part II

Anna Cora Mowatt and What’s in a Name – Part II

Part II: All the World’s a Stage The Victorian opulence of Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt Ritchie’s name discomforts the modern ear. It’s too obviously old-fashioned.  There’s simply too much of it.  As is true of many other persons from her era, modern speakers are ill at ease with the unwieldy bulk and echoes of outdated etiquette and social stratification weighing down all those extra syllables.  This…

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[theladyactress]

Anna Cora Mowatt and Ion

Anna Cora Mowatt and Ion

Part VIII: Waking Realities of Mowatt’s “Dreamy” Ion [This multi-part series of entries examines Anna Cora Mowatt’s experience playing the lead role in Thomas Noon Talfourd’s “Ion.” If you are unfamiliar with the play, a full cast recording of this classic drama is available at Librivox] Anna Cora Mowatt scored her biggest hits playing beautiful young women in historical dramas.  Proud Pauline in…

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[theladyactress]

Anna Cora Mowatt and the Practical Applications of "Ion"

Anna Cora Mowatt and the Practical Applications of “Ion”

Part VII: Anything Ellen Tree Can Do… [This multi-part series of entries examines Anna Cora Mowatt’s experience playing the lead role in Thomas Noon Talfourd’s “Ion.” If you are unfamiliar with the play, a full cast recording of this classic drama is available at Librivox] Before I launch into a discussion of her experiences playing the lead role in Thomas Talfourd’s tragedy “Ion,” let me remind…

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[theladyactress]

Anna Cora Mowatt and Ellen Tree’s Ion

Anna Cora Mowatt and Ellen Tree’s Ion

Part III: The Grand Experiment Begins [This multi-part series of entries examines Anna Cora Mowatt’s experience playing the lead role in Thomas Noon Talfourd’s “Ion.” If you are unfamiliar with the play, a full cast recording of this classic drama is available at Librivox] Anyone who knows anything about Victorian era theatre will be able to tell you that part of the explanation for the fad for…

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[theladyactress]

Anna Cora Mowatt, Pauline, and the Road to England

Anna Cora Mowatt, Pauline, and the Road to England

PART VII: THE CLIMB UP AND ELLEN TREE In 1776, the United States broke decisively from Great Britain. However, in the 1840s, the theatre world of the U.S. was undeniably still a colony of the London stage, humbly obeying its every decree in fads and trends, and making only token displays of independence. Faded stars from the British Isles ruled as kings and queens in playhouses of the East coast.…

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[theladyactress]

Anna Cora Mowatt, Pauline, and E.L. Davenport

Anna Cora Mowatt, Pauline, and E.L. Davenport

PART VI: DAVENPORT TRANSFORMED In sorting through newspaper clippings announcing or discussing Anna Cora Mowatt’s appearances in the theaters of various cities during her career as an actress, it is not unusual to find instances in which her acting partner is mistakenly identified as her husband or her brother. This type of error occurred most frequently while she and E.L. Davenport were in…

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