Alice Erya Gerstenberg (2 August 1885 – 28 July 1972) was an American

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

, actress, and activist best known for her experimental, feminist drama and her involvement with the

Little Theatre Movement As the new medium of cinema was beginning to replace theater as a source of large-scale spectacle, the Little Theatre Movement developed in the United States around 1912. The Little Theatre Movement served to provide experimental centers for the dra ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Background

Gerstenberg was born in Chicago, Illinois, the only child of Julia and Erich Gerstenberg. Gerstenberg's grandfather was a founder and member of the Chicago Board of Trade in 1848, a position Gerstenberg's father inherited later on, which meant that the Gerstenbergs enjoyed a higher standard of living than most middle-class families in Chicago at the time.Atlas, Marilyn. "Alice (Erya) Gerstenberg." Dictionary of Midwestern Literature. 1. Philip A. Greasley (ed.) Indianapolis: 2001. Print. Growing up, Gerstenberg had ample travel experiences and social indulgences including commercial theater. She attended a private school in Chicago and later graduated from Bryn Mawr, a women's college in Pennsylvania, in 1907. After college, she spent some time in New York watching the rehearsals of

David Belasco David Belasco (July 25, 1853 – May 14, 1931) was an American theatrical producer, impresario, director, and playwright. He was the first writer to adapt the short story '' Madame Butterfly'' for the stage. He launched the theatrical career of ...

before returning home to Chicago.Chansky, Dorothy. "Textbook Cases: Learning to Be and See Little Theater Women." in Composing Ourselves: The Little Theater Movement and the American Audience. 1st ed. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2004. 164 -185. Print.

Career

After living in New York for a period, Gerstenberg returned to Chicago, where she continued to write plays; became involved with the

Little Theatre movement As the new medium of cinema was beginning to replace theater as a source of large-scale spectacle, the Little Theatre Movement developed in the United States around 1912. The Little Theatre Movement served to provide experimental centers for the dra ...

, supported her parents, and exercised a strong feminist dedication to bringing non-commercial theater to new playwrights, children, and Chicagoans. Her previous involvement with the theater during her childhood, the plays she wrote at college, as well as the time spent in New York led her to continue writing plays for the rest of her life, working occasionally as an actress, and maintaining an activist role in the theater. Although the majority of her plays have largely been forgotten, her magnum opus

Overtones An overtone is any resonant frequency above the fundamental frequency of a sound. (An overtone may or may not be a harmonic) In other words, overtones are all pitches higher than the lowest pitch within an individual sound; the fundamental i ...

has continued to be produced since its publication in 1913.

Themes and plays

In 1913, Gerstenberg wrote Overtones, a one-act play, her second stage play, and her most frequently performed and printed, which was first produced in November 1915 by the

Washington Square Players The Washington Square Players (WSP) was a theatre troupe and production company that existed from 1915 to 1918 in Manhattan, New York City. It started as a semi-amateur Little Theatre then matured into a Repertory theatre with its own touring ...

at the Bandbox Theater in New York. It has been anthologized alongside

Susan Glaspell Susan Keating Glaspell (July 1, 1876 – July 28, 1948) was an American playwright, novelist, journalist and actress. With her husband George Cram Cook, she founded the Provincetown Players, the first modern American theatre company. First known ...

’s Trifles as a textbook case of modern

one-act plays A one-act play is a play that has only one act, as distinct from plays that occur over several acts. One-act plays may consist of one or more scenes. The 20-40 minute play has emerged as a popular subgenre of the one-act play, especially in writ ...

by women involved in the little theater movement. The play crystallizes her use of experimental form with a familiar dramatic conflict. The play enjoyed many productions due to its innovative use of the split subject, a technique

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Nobel Prize in Literature, literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama tech ...

would later use in his play ''

Strange Interlude ''Strange Interlude'' is an experimental play in nine acts by American playwright Eugene O'Neill. O'Neill began work on it as early as 1923 and developed its scenario in 1925; he wrote the play between May 1926 and the summer of 1927, and complete ...

''. Gerstenberg continued to write many one-act plays early on in her career, many of which were performed by regional or little theaters in and around Chicago. The majority of these plays demonstrate her feminist tendencies – critiquing the social roles and decision which constrained women of the time. Gerstenberg continued to write plays throughout her life, later on publishing several radio plays as well as several commissioned dramatizations of children's stories.

Regional theater and the Little Theater Movement

Gerstenberg's influence on the theater is not limited to her early experimental forms; she played a crucial role in the foundation and success of several theater companies as well as the Little Theater Movement in Chicago. In 1921, she founded the Junior League Children's Theater in Chicago; in 1922 she founded the Playwrights Theater; and finally she supported an amateur theater company that was eventually named for her at its foundation in 1955. Her work with these theater companies demonstrates her commitment to making non-commercialized theater available to new playwrights, giving them the opportunity to see their plays produced; regional playwrights, demonstrating an appreciation for Chicago and the Midwest; and finally to children, giving them an early experience with the theater, the opportunities to act, write, and become involved. Furthermore, she hoped that her work would bring Chicagoans to support non-commercial theater. Gerstenberg was one of a handful of women invited to speak at the National Drama Council and National Theatre Conference. In 1936 she was an invited speaker at three AETA conferences and she won the Chicago Foundation for Literature Award in 1938. Gerstenberg remained involved in the theater throughout her life, whether as a writer, actor, or activist. She had many opportunities to move to New York, but instead chose to remain in Chicago. Many of her female Midwestern colleagues, such as

Zoe Akins Zoe Byrd Akins (October 30, 1886 – October 29, 1958) was an American playwright, poet, and author. She won the 1935 Pulitzer Prize for drama for '' The Old Maid''. Early life Zoe Byrd Akins was born in Humansville, Missouri, second of three ...

and

, began writing in the Midwest but moved to New York where their work was frequently produced, giving them a firmer canonical standing. Many criticize Gerstenberg for not moving to New York when she had the opportunity, believing that she is a playwright who had a great start in Chicago but failed to develop her style. Others cite that Gerstenberg's decision to remain in Chicago demonstrates her commitment to the Little Theater movement, women's issues in the Midwest and a developed sense for the regional community that she wrote for and about.

Plays and novels

Plays * ''

A Small World A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...

'' (1908) * ''Overtones'' (1913), one-act edition * ''

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creature ...

'' (1915), dramatization of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass * '' The Buffer'' (1916) * '' Beyond'' (1917) * '' Hearts'' (1917) * '' Attuned'' (1918) * '' The Unseen'' (1918) * '' Illuminati in Drama Libre'' (1919) * '' Fourteen'' (1920) * ''

Ten One-Act Plays Ten, TEN or 10 may refer to: * 10, an even natural number following 9 and preceding 11 * one of the years 10 BC, AD 10, 1910 and 2010 * October, the tenth month of the year Places * Mount Ten, in Vietnam * Tongren Fenghuang Airport (IATA code) ...

'' (1921) * ''

The Pot Boiler or The Dress Rehearsal ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...

'' (1923) * ''

Four Plays for Women 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

'' (1924) * '' Mah-Johngg'' (1924) * '' Their Husband'' (1924) * '' Ever Young'' (1924) * ''

Seaweed Seaweed, or macroalgae, refers to thousands of species of macroscopic, multicellular, marine algae. The term includes some types of ''Rhodophyta'' (red), ''Phaeophyta'' (brown) and ''Chlorophyta'' (green) macroalgae. Seaweed species such as ke ...

'' (1924) * '' At the Club'' (1925) * '' The Land of "Don’t Want To"'' (1928), dramatization of Lilian Bell's children's story Lilian Bell 001

* ''Overtones'' (1929), three act edition * '' Comedies All'' (1930) * '' The Water Babies'' (1930), dramatization of Charles Kingsley's work * ''

Sentience Sentience is the capacity to experience feelings and sensations. The word was first coined by philosophers in the 1630s for the concept of an ability to feel, derived from Latin '' sentientem'' (a feeling), to distinguish it from the ability to ...

'' (1933) * '' Glee Plays the Game'' (1934) * '' Within the Hour'' (1934) * '' Across the River'' (1939), radio play * '' Lake Front'' (1939), radio play * '' Time for Romance'' (1940) * '' Got Your Number'' (1942, unpublished) * ‘’ Victory Belles ‘’ (play) 1944) * '' On the Beam'' (1963, unpublished) * ''

Time for Living ''Time for Living'' was a Canadian variety television series which aired on CBC Television in 1969. Premise This variety series included music and comedy that was intended for young adults. Host Ray St. Germain was joined by the comedy troupe Th ...

'' (1969) * '' Concordia'' (Unpublished, n.d.) * '' Port of Chicago'' (Unpublished, n.d.) * '' The Hourglass'' (n.d.) Novels * '' Unquenched Fire'' (1912) * ''

The Conscience of Sarah Platt ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in En ...

'' (1915)

Legacy

Gerstenberg's play Overtones, her most frequently performed and printed work, was adapted into the chamber opera

The Clever Artifice of Harriet and Margaret ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

in 2013 by composer-librettist Leanna Kirchoff. The opera won the National Opera Association's 2014-2016 Chamber Opera Composition Competition,Considine, Basil. "Opera minus the high costs and testosterone." ''Twin Cities Daily Planet'', January 24, 2015. and was given its professional premiere by Really Spicy Opera at the Minnesota Fringe Festival in 2015.Minnesota Fringe Festival. "The Clever Artifice of Harriet and Margaret." The opera was later staged by the National Opera Association and Gateway Opera in 2016.Kirchoff, Leanna. Composer website. http://www.leannakirchoff.com/

References

External links

* * *
Alice Gerstenberg Papers
at

The Newberry Library The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities and located on Washington Square in Chicago, Illinois. It has been free and open to the public since 1887. Its collections encompass a variety of topics rela ...

Opera minus the high costs and testosterone
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerstenberg, Alice 1885 births 1972 deaths American stage actresses Bryn Mawr College alumni 20th-century American novelists American women novelists American women dramatists and playwrights Actresses from Chicago Writers from Chicago 20th-century American actresses 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights Novelists from Illinois