Robert A. Schanke's Books

Shattered Applause

The Lives of Eva Le Gallienne

By: Robert A Schanke

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Shattered Applause

The Lives of Eva Le Gallienne

By: Robert A Schanke

This comprehensive biography of the actress film critic Rex Reed called “a national treasure” draws on Robert A. Schanke’s interviews and correspondence not only with Eva Le Gallienne but also with more than one hundred of her colleagues and friends, including Glenda Jackson, Burgess Meredith, Eli Wallach, Peter Falk, Ellen Burstyn, Anne Jackson, Farley Granger, Jane Alexander, Uta Hagen, and Rosemary Harris. Forty-two illustrations offer highlights of Le Gallienne’s many notable performances in such plays as Hedda Gabler, Liliom, The Cherry Orchard, Peter Pan, Camille, Mary Stuart, The Royal Family,and The Dream Watcher. Behind her public role as a famous actress and as the founding and maintaining force of the first civic repertory theatre in the United States, Eva Le Gallienne led a private life complicated by her identity as a lesbian. Schanke considers Le Gallienne’s sexuality and how it played a role in the struggles, defeats, and triumphs that combined to inspire her greatness. Shattered Applause, a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Nonfiction, tells a fascinating story that also serves as a barometer of the changing values, tastes, and attitudes of American society.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

346

Publisher

SIU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0809386003

ISBN 13

9780809386000

Ibsen in America

A Century of Change

By: Robert A. Schanke

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

Ibsen in America

A Century of Change

By: Robert A. Schanke

Dramatic freaks," "a cataract of vapid talk," "an offence to taste"--such were the epithets coined by American critics in the late 19th century about the dramas of the "Bard of Bacteria," Henrik Ibsen. By the 1970s, however, attitudes had reversed. When Washington's Kennedy Center opened its new Eisenhower Theater, they premiered with Ibsen's A Doll's House. This shift in one century from rejection to acceptance, from avant-garde to establishment status, did not occur without considerable resistance. Schanke analyzes this evolution from iconoclast to icon. With actresses' essays and interviews about the playwright, index, bibliography, and illustrations of Ibsen productions.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

372

Publisher

Scarecrow Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0810820994

ISBN 13

9780810820999

That Furious Lesbian

The Story of Mercedes de Acosta

By: Robert A Schanke

Write a review Read reviews Take a Quiz Solve Book Puzzle

That Furious Lesbian

The Story of Mercedes de Acosta

By: Robert A Schanke

In this first book-length biography of Mercedes de Acosta, theatre historian Robert A. Schanke adroitly mines lost archival materials and mixes in his own interviews with de Acosta’s intimates to correct established myths and at last construct an accurate, detailed, and vibrant portrait of the flamboyantly uninhibited early-twentieth-century author, poet, and playwright. Born to wealthy Spanish immigrants, Mercedes de Acosta (1893–1968) lived in opulence and traveled in the same social circles as the Astors and Vanderbilts. Introduced to the New York theater scene at an early age, her dual loves of performance and of women informed every aspect of her life thereafter. Alice B. Toklas’s observation, “Say what you will about Mercedes, she’s had the most important women in the twentieth century,” was well justified, as her romantic conquests included such internationally renowned beauties as Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Isadora Duncan, and Eva Le Gallienne as well as Alla Nazimova, Tamara Karsavina, Pola Negri, and Ona Munson. More than a record of her personal life and infamous romances, this account offers the first analysis of the complete oeuvre of de Acosta’s literary works, including three volumes of poetry, two novels, two film scripts, and a dozen plays. Although only two of her plays were ever published during her lifetime, four of them were produced, featuring such stage luminaries as John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson, and Eva Le Gallienne. Critics praised her first volume of poetry, Moods, in 1919 and predicted her rise to literary fame, but the love of other women that fueled her writing also limited her opportunities to fulfill this destiny. Failing to achieve any lasting fame, she died in relative poverty at the age of seventy-five. De Acosta lived her desires publicly with verve and vigor at a time when few others would dare, and for that, she paid the price of marginalized obscurity. Until now. With “That Furious Lesbian” Schanke at last establishes Mercedes de Acosta’s rightful place as a pioneer—and indeed a champion—in the early struggle for lesbian rights in this country. Robert A. Schanke has edited a companion to this biography, Women in Turmoil: Six Plays by Mercedes de Acosta,also available from Southern Illinois University Press.

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

268

Publisher

SIU Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0809335948

ISBN 13

9780809335947

Book's by Robert A. Schanke

Shattered Applause

Shattered Applause

Ibsen in America

Ibsen in America

That Furious Lesbian

That Furious Lesbian

Username

Password

Username

Password

Password again

Birthday

Email