VICTORIAN ACTRESS | The Lady Actress

Dec 4, 202326 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt, Polkamania, and “The Serious Family” - Part III

Part III - Seriously Merry (A full cast recording of "The Serious Family" is available at Librivox) In 1849, comedian-turned-playwright...

Oct 9, 202312 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt, Polkamania, and “The Serious Family” - Part I

PART ONE - SERIOUSLY CLASSIC The spring of 1852 was one of the saddest, most challenging times of Anna Cora Mowatt’s life. Her husband,...

Aug 4, 202313 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and Anne Blake - Part I

PART I: INTRIGUING, BUT LESS THAN GROUND-BREAKING Originally posted on March 6, 2023 [A recording of this play is available at Librivox]...

Aug 4, 202313 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and “All That Glitters is Not Gold” - Part III

PART III: ANNA CORA STRIKES GOLD AS MARTHA Originally posted Nov. 21, 2022 Martha Gibbs, the pure-hearted heroine of J. Maddison Morton’s...

Aug 4, 202313 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and “All That Glitters is Not Gold” - Part II

PART II: GLITTERING IN ENGLAND Originally posted Nov. 7, 2022 [A full cast recording of this play is available atLibrivox ] “All that...

Aug 4, 202312 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and “All That Glitters is Not Gold” - Part I

PART I: JOHN MADDISON MORTON AND HIS OTHER PLAY Originally posted Oct. 24, 2022 In any well-rounded streaming service that delivers...

Aug 4, 202313 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and Haunted Melrose

THE GHOSTLY LEGEND OF ISABELLA AND COLONEL AXTELL Originally posted Oct. 3, 2022 For the first five years of her marriage, Anna Cora...

Aug 3, 202314 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt in Memoria

Originally posted September 19, 2022 When I inaugurated this blog in the fall of 2019, I envisioned that one semi-regular source of...

Aug 3, 202335 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt, Mimic Life, and the Critics - Part IV

PART IV: THE PUSHBACK Originally posted September 5, 2022 I know that I’ve been building to the negative reaction to Anna Cora Mowatt’s...

Aug 3, 202320 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt, Mimic Life, and the Critics - Part III

PART III: PUBLICATION Originally posted August 22, 2022 Although January of 1856 is usually listed as the publication date of Mimic Life,...

Aug 3, 202321 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt, Mimic Life, and the Critics - Part II

PART II: THE PUSH Originally published August 8, 2022 [Given the response to my last entry, I am somewhat tempted to take a short...

Aug 2, 202321 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and Louise Waller – Part II

PART II -- MOWATT, MEN, AND VILLANY Originally posted May 23, 2022 If you pick up a book about popular culture in the 19th century in the...

Aug 2, 202321 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and Louise Waller

PART I: MOWATT'S WOMEN Originally posted May 9, 2022 A Master’s thesis is really a horrid sort of little document. In the Humanities,...

Aug 1, 202322 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and What’s in a Name – Part II

PART II: ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE Originally posted March 28, 2022 The Victorian opulence of Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt Ritchie’s name...

Aug 1, 202321 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and What’s In A Name

PART I: THE TIES THAT BIND Originally published March 14, 2022 Around this time last year, a well-meaning publishing company launched a...

Aug 1, 202319 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and Ion

PART VIII: WAKING REALITIES OF MOWATT'S "DREAMY" ION Originally posted Feb. 28, 2022 [This multi-part series of entries examines Anna...

Jul 31, 202311 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt, Charlotte Cushman, and the Vanishing Ion

PART VI: ACTRESS VS. ACTRESS Originally posted Jan. 24, 2022 [This multi-part series of entries examines Anna Cora Mowatt’s experience...

Jul 31, 202321 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and Charlotte Cushman’s Ion

PART V: LADY ION Originally posted Jan. 10, 2022 [This multi-part series of entries examines Anna Cora Mowatt’s experience playing the...

Jul 31, 202321 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and Ellen Tree’s Ion on Tour

PART IV: THE U.S. GOES OUT OF ITS TREE FOR ELLEN Originally posted Dec. 29, 2021 [This multi-part series of entries examines Anna Cora...

Jul 30, 202313 min read

Anna Cora Mowatt and Ellen Tree’s Ion

PART III: THE GRAND EXPERIMENT BEGINS [This multi-part series of entries examines Anna Cora Mowatt’s experience playing the lead role in...