Phyl

PHYL is the story of Phyllis Chester, a passionate, feisty young woman desperate to break through the barriers that confine her, eager to find excitement, pleasure and happiness.

Cicely Hamilton (1872-1952) was an actor, an author and a crusader for women’s rights who believed that true progress requires recognizing woman “as a responsible human being with an individuality and interests of her own.” She wrote several plays tackling social issues.  But it was DIANA OF DOBSON’S that caught London’s eye and heart with its light touch and romantic bent in spite of its consideration of ‘serious issues.’  First performed in London in 1908, the play was “accepted as a true picture of the shop-assistant’s life,” to quote from a 1908 press clipping that, “convinced people that something should be done about it.”

On Friday, October 23rd at 7 PM, Mint will present a reading of DIANA OF DOBSON’S, introduced by J. Ellen Gainor of Cornell University, who suggested the play to us in 2001.

Zack

Zachariah Munning has a natural sweetness that is unappreciated by his family. They long ago decided he was just lazy and dim. Zack’s calculating mother and cold-blooded brother are scheming to take advantage of a rich relative who is coming to visit. They believe her wealth might solve the problem of their failing business and are ready to sacrifice Zack for their own aims.

HAROLD BRIGHOUSE (1882 – 1958), “one of prewar northern England’s most respected but neglected playwrights” (The Guardian), was a prominent member of the Manchester School of dramatists, alongside Allan Monkhouse (author of Mary Broome, produced by the Mint in 2012) and Stanley Houghton (author of Hindle Wakes, produced by the Mint in 2017). He wrote over 30 plays, including his most famous work, Hobson’s Choice, which premiered in New York in 1915 and was adapted into an acclaimed 1954 film directed by David Lean and starring Charles Laughton.

Crooked Cross

You might think streaming is free because we don’t have any expenses. Not True! Actors, designers and directors are all paid salaries, not to mention the cost of making the recordings.

CROOKED CROSS draws us into the story of the Klugers, facing the economic and political challenges of life in a quaint village in the Bavarian mountainside between Christmas 1932 and June 1933.

Sylvia “Sally” Carson, was born in 1901 in Surrey. For several years she was a publisher’s reader and taught dance; during this time she frequently went to stay in Bavaria with friends. It was first in Germany and then back in England that she wrote her trilogy of novels including Crooked Cross in 1934, followed by The Prisoner (1936) and A Traveler Passes By (1938) which continue the story of the Kluger family. In 1938 she married Eric Humphries who ran the Bradford works of the publisher Lund Humphries, founded by his father. Together they had three children. Tragically, Sally died of breast cancer in 1941.

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