Mint Theater Spring Benefit will feature a reading of The Importance Of Being A Woman, a one-act play by Rachel Crothers, with a cast led by Sara Surrey (Rutherford and Son), Samantha Soule (A Little Journey), Kate Levy (Return of the Prodigal, Soldier's Wife), and Stephen Schnetzer (Mr. Pim Passes By, The Truth About Bladys) tonight, April 23rd at The Cosmopolitan Club (122 East 66th Street). Eleanor Reissa directs. Leslie Hendrix (Susan from Mint's production of Susan and God and a fixture on "Law and Order" for 19 years as Dr ElizaBeth Rogers) is going to introduce the evening.
Before she was the toast of Broadway,
Rachel Crothers was a drama teacher, writing and directing one act plays for her students at the Stanhope and Wheatcroft School of Acting. Though she went on to write nearly 30 successful full-length Broadway plays, Crothers retained an affinity for the one-act form. She continued to write short plays and in 1925 published
Six One Acts, a collection of plays targeted to amateur and "little theater" groups. Ever the educator, Crothers refused to "talk down" her style, creating surprisingly complex works that would challenge any actor or director, amateur or professional.
Four plays in the volume-
The Importance of Being Clothed,
The Importance of Being Nice,
The Importance of Being Married,
The Importance of Being a Woman-form a series linked by recurring characters and common themes. These delightful mini-comedies of manners pay homage to the sparkling verbosity of
Oscar Wilde while looking forward to the sophisticated society comedies-and acerbic feminist heroines-of the 1930's. With her trademark wit and brisk dialogue, Crothers uses the
"Importance" plays to explore the changing social status of women in post-World War I-America.
The plays center on a group of glittering New York socialites and celebrities who "do good" while wearing the latest couture, women who revel in their independence while wondering if there's something more to life than clothes, niceness, marriage, or status. Chief among them is Nancy Marshall, "the busiest woman in New York," who chairs innumerable committees-and yet can't help feeling something's missing. Her personal crisis comes to a head in
The Importance of Being a Woman. While she declares "No man on earth could possibly be as important to me as I am to myself," she can't help being attracted to the dashing Englishman Arthur Chichester. Nancy doesn't want to give up her philanthropic career, but she doesn't want to be an old maid either-can she find happiness without losing herself along the way?
The Importance of Being a Woman was first printed in 1923 in the August issue of
Harper's Bazaar and quickly became a staple of community theatres across the U.S., a popularity that only grew after its inclusion in
Six One Acts. Now, nearly 90 years after its first publication, the Mint Theater is proud to present the professional premiere of this dazzling play, a work as scintillating as it is heartfelt.
Tickets for this one night only event are available from $500. To purchase tickets, or for more information, call
212/315-0231 or visit
www.minttheater.org.
