Jump to content

Agnes Morgan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the American chemist and academic, see Agnes Fay Morgan.
Agnes Morgan
A young white woman with hair parted center and dressed in an updo, wearing a dress with a square neckline and elaborate draping
Agnes Morgan, from the 1901 yearbook of Radcliffe College
BornOctober 31, 1879
Le Roy, New York, U.S.
DiedMay 25, 1976
San Bernardino, California, U.S.
EducationRadcliffe College (BA and MA)
Occupations
  • Director
  • playwright
  • actress
  • theatrical producer
PartnerHelen Arthur

Agnes B. Morgan (October 31, 1879 – May 25, 1976) was a director, playwright, actress and theatrical producer. She is most known for her association with the Neighborhood Playhouse where she was a director and functioned in numerous other roles.

Biography

[edit]

Morgan was born in Le Roy, New York to Frank H. Morgan, an editor, and Sarah L. Cutler Morgan, a teacher.[1][2] Attending Radcliffe College,[3] she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1901[4] and her Master of Arts[3] in 1903. In 1904 she attended George Pierce Baker's 47 Workshop at Harvard University.

She was hired at the Neighborhood Playhouse on the recommendation of one of the Playhouse teachers Sarah Cowell Le Moyne who knew Helen Arthur (who became Morgan's partner).[5][6] Lewisohn described Morgan as "quiet, serious, watchful." In speaking of the Lewisohn sisters, founders of the Playhouse joining with Morgan and Helen Arthur, Lewisohn added "...never had five people cast in such different molds joined forces with more congeniality."[5]

In speaking of two comedies, Great Catherine: Whom Glory Still Adores by Shaw and The Queen's Enemies by Lord Dunsany, Crowley recalled that "the spirited quality in both productions was largely due to Agnes Morgan's skillful direction. Perhaps Great Catherine was paving the way to her gift in handling burlesque, which was later to create an infectious vogue on Grand Street and Broadway through the [Grand Street Follies]."[7]

Crowley described Morgan as an essential part of the Playhouse:

Agnes Morgan's apprentices were the stage crew, a neighborhood corps of assistant property boys, scene shifters, and painters But her technical facility was such that she was everywhere in the theatre, combining a collection of functions the mere mention of which would drive any "self-respecting" member of the theatre union of today into a decline. Skilled as an actor, she played an occasional role; she developed the technical side of lighting, and had an instinctive gift for direction, as for the function of stage manager. As an amateur she responded to any production need while pursuing her professional career as playwright.[8]

Grand St. Follies: Neighborhood Playhouse had an in-house burlesque. While searching for an experimental play (promised to subscribers), Lewisohn suggested that the in-house burlesque be open to the subscribers. It had been the inspiration and creation of Agnes Morgan and Helen Arthur. The following season, staff were concerned as to whether they could equal the success of the first Grand Street Follies. "...it was clear that her genius for brilliant satire had flowered overnight.[9]

Morgan directed thirty-one out of forty-four dramas mounted at the Neighborhood Playhouse between 1915 and its closing in 1927, as well as dance and festival shows.[10] After the Playhouse closed she formed her own company, originally sharing the name of the annual Grand Street Follies and later called Actor-Managers, Inc. which existed until 1939.[10] She directed eight plays on Broadway between 1927 and 1935[10] as well as three plays for the Federal Theatre Project.[11] In 1931 she wrote the play If Love Were All under the pseudonym Cutler Hatch and staged it as well.[12]

In 1940 Morgan became associate director of the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey,[13] a position she held until 1972.[11]

Agnes Morgan apparently met her partner, the lawyer Helen Arthur, while working at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Arthur pre-deceased Morgan on December 10, 1939.[13]

Morgan died on May 25, 1976,[13] in San Bernardino, California.[14]

Broadway stage productions

[edit]

Information from the Internet Broadway Database.

Year Title Function
1913 The Man With Three Wives co-author of book
1922 Back to Methuselah staging for part 2
1922 R.U.R. director
1925 The Legends of the Dance writer, staging
1927 Lovers and Enemies staging
1927 If staging
1928 Maya staging
1928 The Grand Street Follies book, lyrics, staging
1929 Ruth Draper stage director
1929 The Grand Street Follies book, lyric, staging
1931 If Love Were All writer, staging
1936 American Holiday staging
1936 Class of '29 staging
1937 A Hero is Born lyrics, staging
1942 Papa is All director
1942 I Killed the Count staging, producer

Neighborhood Playhouse productions

[edit]

Information from Alice Lewisohn Crowley, Neighborhood Playhouse.[15]

Year Title Function
1912 The Shepherd co-director
1915 Tethered Sheep director
1915 The Glittering Gate director
1915 The Maker of Dreams co-director
1915 Captain Brassbound’s Conversion director
1915 The Waldies co-director (with Alice Lewisohn)
1916 The Subjection of Kezia director
1916 A Night at an Inn director
1916 Great Catherine director
1916 The Inca of Perusalem director
1916 The Queen's Enemies co-director (with Alice Lewisohn)
1916 Black ‘Ell co-director (with Alice Lewisohn)
1917 A Sunny Morning co-director (with Alice Lewisohn)
1917 The People director
1917 Pippa Passes co-director (with Alice Lewisohn)
1918 Fortunato co-director (with Alice Lewisohn)
1918 Free director
1918 Guibour director
1918 The Eternal Megalosaurus director
1919 The Noose director
1919 Everybody’s Husband co-director (with Alice Lewisohn)
1920 Innocent and Annabel director
1921 The Madras House co-director (with Alice Lewisohn)
1922 The Suicides of the Rue Sombre director
1922 The Grand Street Follies of 1922 co-director (with Helen Arthur)
1922 The Little Legend of the Dance story
1923 This Fine-Pretty World co-director (with Alice Lewisohn)
1924 The Grand Street Follies (1924) book, lyrics; co-staged (with Helen Arthur)
1924 The Little Clay Cart adapted, co-director (with Irene Lewisohn)
1924 Exiles director
1925 The Critic co-director (with Ian Maclaren)
1925 The Grand Street Follies (3rd edition) book, lyrics
1926 The Romantic Young Lady director
1926 The Grand Street Follies (4th edition) book, lyrics, staging
1926 The Lion Tamer director
1927 The Grand Street Follies (5th edition) sketches, lyrics

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Knapp 2008, p. 666.
  2. ^ The 1880 United States Federal Census for Agnes Morgan gives a middle initial C which she never used professionally.
  3. ^ a b Chinoy, Helen Krich; Jenkins, Linda Walsh (2006). Women in American Theatre. Theatre Communications Grou. p. 193. ISBN 978-1-55936-263-4. Retrieved February 26, 2020.
  4. ^ Radcliffe College, Our Book (1901 yearbook): 4.
  5. ^ a b Crowley 1959, p. 30.
  6. ^ Sometimes Morgan is erroneously considered one of the founders of the Neighborhood Playhouse.
  7. ^ Crowley 1959, p. 68.
  8. ^ Crowley 1959, p. 84.
  9. ^ Crowley 1959, p. 118.
  10. ^ a b c Cobrin 2009, p. 140.
  11. ^ a b Cobrin 2009, p. 141.
  12. ^ If Love Were All at IBDB.com.
  13. ^ a b c Harbin, Billy J.; Marra, Kim; Schanke, Robert A. (2005). The Gay & Lesbian Theatrical Legacy: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures in American Stage History in the Pre-Stonewall Era. University of Michigan Press. pp. 290–292. ISBN 978-0-472-06858-6. Retrieved February 26, 2020.
  14. ^ "California Death Index, 1940-1997," Ancestry.com accessed March 6, 2016 (access by subscription).
  15. ^ Crowley 1959, pp. 252–260.

Sources

[edit]
  • Cobrin, Pamela (2009). From Winning the Vote to Directing on Broadway: The Emergence of Women on the New York Stage, 1880–1927. Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press. ISBN 978-0-87413-058-4.
  • Crowley, Alice Lewisohn (1959). Neighborhood Playhouse: Leaves From a Theatre Scrapbook. New York: Theatre Arts Books.
  • Harbin, Billy J.; Marra, Kim; Schanke, Robert A., eds. (2005). The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures in American Stage History in the Pre-Stonewall Era. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-09858-3.
  • Knapp, Margaret M. (2008). American Women Stage Directors of the Twentieth Century. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. pp. 666–667. ISBN 978-0-252-03226-4.

General bibliography

[edit]
  • American Women Playwrights, 1900–1930. A checklist. Compiled by Frances Diodato Bzowski. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992.
  • American Women Stage Directors of the Twentieth Century. By Anne Fliotsos and Wendy Vierow. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2008.
  • Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 16: September, 1988-August, 1990. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1990.
  • Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 19: September, 1993-August, 1994. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1994.
  • The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy. A biographical dictionary of major figures in American stage history in the pre-Stonewall era. Edited by Billy J. Harbin, Kim Marra, and Robert A. Schanke. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2005.
  • Notable Women in the American Theatre. A biographical dictionary. Edited by Alice M. Robinson, Vera Mowry Roberts, and Milly S. Barranger. New York: Greenwood Press, 1989.
  • Who's Who of American Women. First edition, 1958–1959. Wilmette, IL: Marquis Who's Who, 1958.
  • Who's Who of American Women. Second edition, 1961–1962. Wilmette, IL: Marquis Who's Who, 1961.
  • Who's Who of American Women. Third edition, 1964–1965. Wilmette, IL: Marquis Who's Who, 1963.
  • Who's Who of American Women. Fourth edition, 1966–1967. Wilmette, IL: Marquis Who's Who, 1965.
  • Who's Who of American Women. Fifth edition, 1968–1969. Wilmette, IL: Marquis Who's Who, 1967.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Agnes_Morgan&oldid=1247324173"