Charlotte Cushman is, to date, the only actress ever elected to the Hall of Fame for Great Americans. Like many female stars of the American stage, she was a lesbian.
Who was Ms. Cushman? She was born in Boston, Mass., July 23, 1816, an eighth generation descendant of Robert Cushman a Puritan who helped organize the Mayflower voyage and emigrated to the future United States in 1621. Her father was a successful businessman who began to fall on hard times and died when Charlotte was thirteen. She possessed an impressive contralto voice and was trained for the opera, making her debut as Countess Almaviva in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro; her singing voice failed after she was forced to essay a number of soprano roles. Cushman switched to the dramatic stage, making her debut at the Tremont Theatre in Boston, April 8,1835. One of her most notable successes came as Romeo, with her younger sister, Susan, playing Juliet. Shylock and Cardinal Wolsey were among the other male parts that Charlotte played most notably.
She made her New York debut in Macbeth in 1836, but spent the next eight years with various stock companies. Charlotte toured the U.S. with star William Macready in 1845 and made her London debut in classic repertory in 1854. Her best roles were considered to be Lady Macbeth and Meg Merrilies in a dramatization of Scott's Guy Mannering.
Charlotte did not try to hide her homosexuality, and had a number of lesbian lovers. Among them were Rosalie Sully, Matilda Hays, Harriet Hosmer, Emma Stebbins, and Emma Crow She made her final stage appearance at Boston's Globe Theatre, May 15, 1875, and died of pneumonia, aged fifty-nine, February 18, 1876.
#americantheatrenetwork
No comments:
Post a Comment