Alison’s House
By Susan Glaspell
Directed by Linda Ames Key
September 24th 1999 through October 17th 1999
Where:
The Mint Theater
311 West 43rd St, 5th floor
Susan Glaspell is often called “The mother of American Drama” for her role in founding the Provincetown Players during the early 20th century. Glaspell’s play, ALISON’S HOUSE—inspired by the life of Emily Dickinson—was deemed the “rankest outsider” ever to win the Pulitzer Prize when it won American drama’s highest honor in 1931, and the backlash against it discouraged any New York revival until the Mint’s acclaimed production 70 years later.
Set on the last day of the 19th century, ALISON’S HOUSE takes audiences on a fictional journey inside the home of a beloved poet as her family wrestles with complex questions about personal privacy for public people when they discover a cache of profoundly personal, and compromising, poems and letters.
“The Mint’s production demonstrated unequivocally not only the theatrical viability, but also the humor and poignancy of Glaspell’s play,” observed Professor J. Ellen Gainor of Cornell, author of “Susan Glaspell in Context: American Theater, Culture, and Politics, 1915-48”. Nytheatre.com echoed the praise calling the production “an excellent rendition of a play that has undeservedly been cast aside…a splendid work of theater, one that speaks resonantly to us today as we approach the dawning of a new millennium.”1