On Her Shoulders to Stage Free Reading of CHICAGO (1926), 12/17

On Her Shoulders is pleased to present a FREE staged reading of Chicago (1926) by Maurine Dallas Watkins, directed by Melody Brooks on Wednesday, December 17, 2014. Doors open at 6:30pm; The Play in Context, which situates the script in its historical time and place, kicks off the evening at 6:45pm with an Introduction by dramaturg Mari Lyn Henry Katie McHugh is Assistant Director. Running time, including a post-performance Q&A is 2.5 hours. The performance is at The New School, Wollman Hall, 65 West 11th Street. R.S.V.P to OnHerShouldersReservations@gmail.com.

MAURINE DALLAS WATKINS (1896-1969) was born in Louisville, KY; she gave herself her middle name of Dallas in deference to her father's beloved place of birth, Dallas County, Missouri. She wrote her first play The Heart of Gold when she was fifteen and cofounded The High School Billiken, Crawfordsville High School's first newspaper, the same year. She graduated first in her class in 1919 from Butler College in Indianapolis, then enrolled in Radcliffe to pursue graduate studies in Greek. Her plans changed when she was accepted into George Pierce Baker's playwriting workshop at Harvard. Baker encouraged writing students to seek experience in the larger world which may have led to Maurine securing a job at the Chicago Tribune in 1924. She remained there for seven months, covering the murder trials of Belva Gaertner, a twice-divorced cabaret singer, and Beulah Sheriff Annan. Watkins' often acerbically amusing reportage focused on the farcical, cynical, and sensational aspects of the two cases, the press and public interest, and the legal proceedings. Both women were found not guilty, although Watkins was convinced they were. She also briefly reported on the famous Leopold and Loeb case, which quickly overshadowed the coverage of the Belva Gaertner verdict. Watkins returned to Baker's famous 47 Workshop, now at Yale, and wrote the first draft of Chicago. Baker sent the play (which received the highest grade in his class) to producer Sam Harris in New York. Chicago opened on Broadway on December 30, 1926. The play ran for a respectable 172 performances, then toured for 2 years (with a then-unknown Clark Gable appearing in a Los Angeles production as Amos Hart). Watkins wrote about twenty plays, but Chicago was her most successful. She had some success as a Hollywood screenwriter in the 30s but left in the 40s to be close to her elderly parents in Florida. She was a lifelong Christian and spent much of her fortune founding contests and endowing Chairs in Greek and Bible Studies at some 20 universities. In the 1960s, Bob Fosse sought the rights to Chicago for a musical adaptation, but she resisted his offers. Following her death from lung cancer in 1969, her estate sold him the rights, leading to the development of Chicago: A Musical Vaudeville with a score by Kander and Ebb, first produced in 1975 and still running today.

MELODY BROOKS (Director) is the founder and Artistic Director of New Perspectives Theatre Company (NPTC). At NPTC she directs the Women's Work LAB, which develops short and full-length plays by 6-10 members per year; she also serves as Executive Producer for NPTC's Voices From the Edge Festival, which has showcased more than 75 new works by African-American writers and performers since 1998. In 25 years, Melody has developed, directed and produced more than 150 original and classic plays in locations ranging from large professional venues to city parks and schools in all boroughs. In 2009 she created Theatre Is Served!, a program of concert readings of plays from across the historical and cultural spectrum, performed with a matching meal, which made NPTC a logical home for ON HER SHOULDERS. She is an advisor to the Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre new play lab; has served as an Associate Producer for the NY Musical Theatre Festival; and was an Asst. Professor of Theatre at LIU/Brooklyn from 1999-2009. She is a co-founder of 50/50 in 2020: Parity for Women Theatre Artists, a grassroots initiative named by nytheatre.com as a 2009 "Person" of the Year, and a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women, serving on the Heritage and International Committees.

MARI LYN HENRY (Dramaturg) is the founder of The Society For The Preservation of Theatrical History dedicated to forgotten artists who had a major impact on the development of the modern Theatre, especially in New York City. It brings together historical scholarship on the people, circumstances and societal forces that shaped the modern era, along with a performance element that allows the voices of these innovative and important figures to be heard again by today's audiences. She holds a Master's Degree in Theatre History from Catholic University in Washington, DC. Her published thesis concerned the development and significance of the dramatic sketch and playlet in American vaudeville, 1893-1925. After twenty years as a casting director she started a career coaching business and is the co-author of five editions of How To Be A Working Actor which for over 25 years has been considered the 'bible of the biz' by industry professionals, educators and celebrities. She conducts workshops on audition technique, script analysis and impression management at a number of conservatory programs nationally and abroad. Mari Lyn is on the Board of the League of Professional Theatre Woman, and founder and chair of LPTW's Heritage Committee.

ON HER SHOULDERS was founded in 2012 to present monthly staged readings of plays by women from across the spectrum of time, with contemporary dramaturgs contextualizing--and in some cases adapting--them for modern audiences. The program seeks to make it impossible to deny or ignore the great tradition and value of women's contribution to the theatrical canon. OHS became a program of NPTC in November 2013.

NEW PERSPECTIVES THEATRE COMPANY (NPTC) is an award-winning, multi-racial company now in its 23rd season. The Company's mission is to develop and produce new plays and playwrights, especially women and people of color; to present classic plays in a style that addresses contemporary issues; and to extend the benefits of theatre to young people and communities in need. Our aim is not to exclude, but to cast a wider net. www.nptnyc.org

THE NEW SCHOOL FOR DRAMA: The creative home for the future of performing arts. Agile. Engaged. Innovative. Multi-disciplinary The New School for Drama is home to a dynamic group of young directors, writers, actors, creative technologists, and award-winning faculty With a core belief in rigorous creativity and collaborative learning, our programs embrace civic awareness across performance disciplines to create work imbued with professionalism, imagination and social context. For more information, please visit www.newschool.edu/drama

The Play in Context, the dramaturgical and scholarly presentation component to the program, is sponsored in part by the League of Professional Theatre Women, a non-profit organization promoting visibility and increasing opportunities for women in theatre since 1982. www.theatrewomen.org

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