Dec 22, 2009

The Verge | Susan Glaspell’s The Verge: An Experiment in Feminism

In the following essay, Waterman explores Glaspell’s blending of experimental views and techniques with more traditional elements in The Verge.

The plays written by Susan Glaspell for the Provincetown Playhouse between 1915 and 1922 illustrate a characteristic not usually found in avantegarde playwrights and little theatres, but one that is common to both this playwright and the theatre that produced her plays; namely, an unusual blending of traditional values with radical attitudes typically associated with an experimental artistic group. The traditional outlook derives mainly from the midwestern background of so many of the Players, especially George Cram Cook, the founder and director of the Provincetown, and Susan...