Emily and the Theater
No one recalls a time when Emily was not attracted to performance and the theater. She was a zealous actress at camps and in high school, but in college retreated to backstage work. That was fortunate; we met backstage at a production of Caucasian Chalk Circle, when I was assistant stage manager and she was handling props.
(NH_12: Emily in an arabesque-like pose on her terrace, July 1948)
(VX_01: as the Queen of Hearts, summer 1951)
(WB_02: in the Camp Louise production of Tom Sawyer, July 1953)
(NK_18: rehearsing for a high-school production of R.U.R., 2 December 1956)
(NK_20: as one of the Trojan Women in a production at the Vermont Creative Work Camp, July 1957)
(ZDB_05, in The House of Bernarda Alba, November 1957)
(YY_19: review of Emily's performance as Bernarda)
(YU_07: poster, December 1960)
Emily returned to theater work in the 1990s, first taking all of Studio Theatre's classes except Stage Combat, and then auditioning and performing. She understudied the part of Ginger's Mother in the Studio Production of Trudy Blue, and that would have been her best role, but she was never needed in performance. She played Gertrude Ederle in Venus Theatre's The Way She Played the Game, and she had parts in Studio Theatre's chaotic Wonderland Alice and in Natural Theatre's best-forgotten Antigua. The only picture worth showing is from the Arts United production of Phèdre.
(SV_01: Emily as Oenone in Phèdre, February 2004 [photo by Steve Delaney])
On the evening she died, Emily was working on Contingency 4, a movie from EventFilms, in which Emily played the part of Mrs. Henderson.
(ZAF_05: Emily as Mrs. Henderson in Contingency 4)
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Page revised: 11/29/2010 21:56