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 When
Romeo Was a Woman : Charlotte Cushman and Her Circle of Female
Spectators by Lisa Merrill
At the height of her
career, Charlotte Cushman (1816-76) was considered America's
greatest actress and one of the most famous women in the
English-speaking world. Cushman challenged Victorian notions of
gender in her stage portrayals of male characters and of strong,
androgynous female characters. Offstage she was a powerful,
independent businesswoman whose income supported her family, women
lovers, and friends. Lisa Merrill sheds new light on the actress's
romantic and erotic relationships and, in turn, on our
understandings of the nature of nineteenth-century women's
"romantic friendships." She demonstrates how Cushman's
androgynous presence served as a symbol to many of her
contemporaries and revealed the period's multiple and often
contradictory attitudes toward female performers, independent
women, and the unspeakable possibilities of same-sex desire. When
Romeo Was a Woman will find an appreciative audience among general
readers as well as specialists in gay/lesbian history, women's
history, theater and performance, popular culture, Victorian
Studies, and American Studies.
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Excerpt:
In 1836, Charlotte Cushman made her stage debut
as Lady Macbeth in New Orleans. That year she also played Romeo,
beginning a career-long tradition of playing both male and female
roles. Cushman appeared in London in 1845 opposite Edwin
Forrest and was immediately hailed as the greatest actress of
her time. She continued to play conventional tragic heroines, as
well as Hamlet, and Romeo to her sister Susan's Juliet. Having
settled permanently in Europe, Cushman returned in 1857, 1860, and
again in 1874, to bid farewell to her American fans...
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From
Funkandwagnalls.com
Excerpt:
American actor, born in Boston. She began her
professional career in 1835 as an opera singer and later that year
played her first dramatic role as Lady Macbeth. In 1844 she
accompanied the English actor William Charles Macready on his
American tour...
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Tim Miller Interviews Lisa Merrill, author of When
Romeo Was a Woman
From Oasis
Magazine
Excerpt:
She was as famous as Madonna, as talented as Sir
Laurence Olivier and as much a Sapphic heartthrob as Jodie Foster!
I am talking about none other than Charlotte Cushman, the renowned
19th Century lesbian actress who wowed the world with her
brilliant performances of male roles in Shakespeare. Lisa Merrill
recounts this extraordinary story in When Romeo Was a Woman
(University of Michigan Press, 1999), her engaging and
consistently enjoyable biography of Cushman and the pivotal role
she played in the development of lesbian cultural identity...
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Carolyn Gage is a lesbian-feminist playwright,
performer, director, and activist, currently teaching theatre and
women's studies courses at the University of Southern Maine. In
the fall, she will be teaching directing at Bates College.
The
Last Reading of Charlotte Cushman
was national winner of the generous Arch and Bruce Brown
Foundation Grant for best play about a lesbian historical figure.
Gage has directed a production of this work that was featured at
the National Women's Music Festival and at Queerfest in Los
Angeles...
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