The First Actresses

The First Actresses
Author: Gillian Perry
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Actresses
ISBN: 9781855144118

Featuring a range of large-scale, public and more intimate portraits of actresses, The First Actresses provides a vivid spectacle of femininity, fashion and theatricality from Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons. Ranging from oil paint to porcelain, these portraits illustrate the enduring popularity of portraits of women performers. Crucially the book seeks to reassess the traditional association between actress and'prostitute', and the moral ambiguity of women playing male roles. Portraiture became an important vehicle for the expression of concerns about female sexuality, social status, decorum, gender and celebrity. The authors also chart the commercialisation of the spectacle of the actress, as well as the connections between the eighteenth-century 'star system' and modern celebrity culture. Organised thematically, sections include: 'Painting Acresses' Lives', 'Nell Gwyn and Covent Garden Goddesses', 'Divas, Dancing and the Rage for Music: Painting Women in Musical Performance', 'Beauty, Ageing and the Body Politic of the Eighteenth-Century Actress' and 'Star Systems'. Illustrated with remarkable paintings by major artists of the period, a fascinating and lucid text reveals the many ways in which women performers enabled artistic innovation and creativity, provoked intellectual debate and contributed to the popularity and visibility of the theatre. Accompanies an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London, 20 October 2011 - 8 January 2012

The First English Actresses

The First English Actresses
Author: Elizabeth Howe
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 1992-06-04
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780521422109

This book describes how and why women were permitted to act on the public stage after 1660 in England.

The First Actress

The First Actress
Author: C. W. Gortner
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2020-05-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0525620907

“This novel about Sarah Bernhardt, the iconic French actress, is both a riveting portrait of the artist as a passionate young woman and a luscious historical novel full of period detail.”—Melanie Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of Mistress of the Ritz and The Aviator’s Wife From her beginnings as the daughter of a courtesan to her extraordinary transformation into the most celebrated actress of her era, Sarah Bernhardt is brought to life by an internationally bestselling author praised for his historical novels featuring famous women. Sarah’s highly dramatic life starts when she returns to Paris after her convent schooling and is confronted by her mother’s demand to follow in the family trade as a courtesan. To escape this fate, Sarah pursues a career onstage at the esteemed Comédie-Française, until her rebellious acting style leads to her scandalous dismissal. Only nineteen years old and unemployed, Sarah is forced to submit to her mother’s wishes. But her seductive ease as a courtesan comes to an abrupt end when she discovers she is pregnant. Unwilling to give up her child, Sarah defies social condemnation and is cast adrift, penniless and alone. With her striking beauty and innovative performances in a bohemian theater, Sarah catapults to unexpected success; suddenly, audiences clamor to see this controversial young actress. But her world is torn asunder by the brutal 1870 siege of Paris. Sarah refuses to abandon the ravaged city, nursing wounded soldiers and risking her life. Her return to the Comédie and her tempestuous affair with her leading man plunge Sarah into a fierce quest for independence. Undeterred, she risks everything to become France’s most acclaimed actress, enthralling audiences with her shocking portrayals of female and male characters. Sarah’s daring talent and outrageous London engagement pave her path to worldwide celebrity, with sold-out tours in Europe and America. Told in her own voice, this is Sarah Bernhardt’s incandescent story—a fascinating, intimate account of a woman whose unrivaled talent and indomitable spirit has enshrined her in history as the Divine Sarah.

Carrying All Before Her

Carrying All Before Her
Author: Chelsea Phillips
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2022-01-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1644532484

Carrying All Before Her recovers the stories of six eighteenth-century celebrity actresses who performed during pregnancy, melding public and private, persona and person, domestic and professional labor and helping to shape wider social, medical, and political conversations about gender, sexuality, pregnancy, and motherhood. Their stories deepen our understanding of celebrity, repertory, and theatre's connection to a wider social world, and challenge notions of women's agency and power in and beyond the professional theatre.

London's West End Actresses and the Origins of Celebrity Charity, 1880-1920

London's West End Actresses and the Origins of Celebrity Charity, 1880-1920
Author: Catherine Hindson
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2016-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1609384253

Chapter 6. "Killing Kruger with Your Mouth" | The Actress, Charity Recitations, and the Second Anglo Boer War -- Chapter 7. The "Comforteers" | Actresses and Charity Activity during the First World War -- Conclusion | "Get an Actress First. If You Can't Get an Actress Then Get a Duchess."--Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

The Actress

The Actress
Author: Karen Hollinger
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2013-10-08
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1135205892

The Actress: Hollywood Acting and the Female Star investigates the contemporary film actress both as an artist and as an ideological construct. Divided into two sections, The Actress first examines the major issues in studying film acting, stardom, and the Hollywood actress. Combining theories of screen acting and of film stardom, The Actress presents a synthesis of methodologies and offers the student and scholar a new approach to these two subjects of study.

African American Actresses

African American Actresses
Author: Charlene B. Regester
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 440
Release: 2010-06-14
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0253004314

Nine actresses, from Madame Sul-Te-Wan in Birth of a Nation (1915) to Ethel Waters in Member of the Wedding (1952), are profiled in African American Actresses. Charlene Regester poses questions about prevailing racial politics, on-screen and off-screen identities, and black stardom and white stardom. She reveals how these women fought for their roles as well as what they compromised (or didn't compromise). Regester repositions these actresses to highlight their contributions to cinema in the first half of the 20th century, taking an informed theoretical, historical, and critical approach.

Actress: A Novel

Actress: A Novel
Author: Anne Enright
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2020-03-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1324005637

Longlisted for the 2020 Women's Prize for Fiction One of Time's 100 Must-Read Books of 2020 “A critique, a confession, a love letter—and another brilliant novel from Anne Enright.” —Ron Charles, Washington Post Katherine O’Dell is an Irish theater legend. Every moment of her life is a performance, with her daughter, Norah, standing in the wings. With age, alcohol, and dimming stardom, however, Katherine’s grip on reality grows fitful. Fueled by a proud and long-simmering rage, she commits a bizarre crime. As Norah’s role gradually changes to Katherine’s protector, caregiver, and finally legacy-keeper, she revisits her mother’s life of fiercely kept secrets; and Norah confronts in turn the secrets of her own sexual and emotional coming-of-age. With virtuosic storytelling, Actress weaves together two generations of women with difficult sexual histories, touching a raw and timely nerve.

Women on the Stage in Early Modern France

Women on the Stage in Early Modern France
Author: Virginia Scott
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages:
Release: 2010-07-08
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 1139491644

Focusing on actresses in France during the early modern period, Virginia Scott examines how the stereotype of the actress has been constructed. The study then moves beyond that stereotype to detail the reality of the personal and artistic lives of women on the French stage, from the almost unknown Marie Ferré - who signed a contract for 12 livres a year in 1545 to perform the 'antiquailles de Rome or other histories, moralities, farces, and acrobatics' in the provinces - to the queens of the eighteenth-century Paris stage, whose 'adventures' have overshadowed their artistic triumphs. The book also investigates the ways in which actresses made invaluable contributions to the development of the French theatre in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and looks at the 'afterlives' of such women as Armande Béjart, Marquise Du Parc, Charlotte Desmares, Adrienne Lecouvreur, and Hippolyte Clairon in biographies, plays, and films.