Janette Steer

Janette Steer was an American-born actress, playwright, theatrical manager, and suffragist based in London.

Janette Steer in costume as Marie Antoinette, from an 1891 publication.
Janette Steer in costume as Galatea, from a 1900 publication.

Early life

Janette Steer began acting as an amateur, with her sister, Mrs. Mackintosh. An early reviewer described the two in 1886: "Mrs. Mackintosh is tall and stout; Miss Steer is tall and thin. Mrs. Mackintosh has a good deal of hard voice; Miss Steer has very little voice at all. Mrs. Mackintosh has some faint glimmerings of histrionic ability; Miss Steer at present has none. They were cheered by their friends, and received bouquets."[1] However, it was Steer who continued in the profession.[2]

Career

In 1900, Steer became manager of the Comedy Theatre.[3][2] She accepted the role because, as she explained, "I hate having to play parts I don't like, and now I can choose what I please."[4] That year, she appeared in a set of four short works, including W. S. Gilbert's Comedy and Tragedy, Alicia Ramsey's Isla the Chosen, and scenes from Romeo and Juliet (she played Romeo) and Hamlet (she played Hamlet).[5] Steer provoked widely publicized threats of legal action from W. S. Gilbert,[6][7] when Gilbert was upset by her interpretation of Galatea, at odds with his conception of the character,[8] in a 1900 revival of his Pygmalion and Galatea.[9][10] A court refused to grant an injunction against Steer in the matter.[11][12]

Other acting appearances by Steer included the shows Robinson Crusoe (1886, with her sister Mrs. Mackintosh),[13] Idols of the Heart (1891, a play she wrote and acted in),[14] An American Bride (1892),[15] Gudgeons (1893),[16] The Silent Battle (1892-1893), A Bunch of Violets (1894), John-a-Dreams (1894), The Seats of the Mighty (1897), Settled Out of Court (1897),[17] The Liars (1897),[18] Kenyon's Widow (1900), The Sin of a Life (1901), The Queen's Double (1901), A Pageant of Great Women (1909-1910),[19] Edith (1912, produced by the Women Writers' Suffrage League), Honourable Women (1913), and The Sphinx (1914, another suffrage play, which she also wrote), The End of Silence (1915, a wartime fundraiser for the RSPCA), and The Passing of the Third Floor Back (1917, a wartime fundraiser for Scottish Women's Hospitals).[20]

Plays written by Steer included The Cloven Foot (1890), Idols of the Heart (1890), All Sorts and Conditions of Men (1902), Geraldine Wants to Know (1911), and The Sphinx (1914).[21][20] Steer was a member of the Actresses' Franchise League[22] and wrote an essay "The Suffrage Movement and the Salvation of the Race" for a 1912 suffrage publication.[23]

References
  1. "'The Fool's Revenge' at the Opera Comique" Vanity Fair (July 10, 1886): 18.
  2. "Theatre Gossip" The Sketch (May 9, 1900): 131.
  3. "Miss Janette Steer, the New Manageress of the Comedy Theatre" Sketch (May 16, 1900): 155.
  4. Kerry Powell, "Victorian Theatre: Power and the Politics of Gender" in Juliet John, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Literary Culture (Oxford University Press 2016): 681. ISBN 9780199593736
  5. "Theatrical Gossip: Miss Janette Steer" The Sketch (August 1, 1900): 81.
  6. "Mr. Gilbert is Angry; Miss Steer Has Ideas of Her Own and He Wants Her Enjoined" New York Times (June 23, 1900).
  7. "Gilbert-Steer Spat Goes On" Chicago Daily Tribune (June 17, 1900): 10.
  8. Gail Marshall, Actresses on the Victorian Stage: Feminine Performance and the Galatea Myth (Cambridge University Press 1998): 57. ISBN 9780521620161
  9. Hesketh Pearson, Gilbert and Sullivan: A Biography (House of Stratus 2015): 12. ISBN 9780755154296
  10. Michael Ainger, Gilbert and Sullivan: A Dual Biography (Oxford University Press 2002): 382. ISBN 9780195349009
  11. "Janette Steer Victorious" New York Times (June 30, 1900): 6.
  12. "Dramatist Gilbert Refused Injunction" Washington Post (June 30, 1900): 4.
  13. "Robinson Crusoe" Dramatic Notes (December 1886): 133.
  14. "New Plays Produced in London" The Dramatic Yearbook for 1891 (Trischler 1892): 181.
  15. "An American Bride" The Theatre (June 1, 1892): 311.
  16. "Gudgeons" The Theatre (December 1, 1893): 342.
  17. J. P. Wearing, The London Stage 1890-1899: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (Scarecrow Press 2013): 116, 146, 187, etc. ISBN 9780810892828
  18. "The Liars" Plays by Henry Arthur Jones (Cambridge University Press 1982): 163. ISBN 9780521299367
  19. J. P. Wearing, The London Stage 1900-1909: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (Scarecrow Press 2013): 16, 22, 28, 54, 75, 495. ISBN 9780810892941
  20. J. P. Wearing, The London Stage 1910-1919: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel (Scarecrow Press 2013). ISBN 9780810893009
  21. "SAPDD Biographies" How the Vote was Won.
  22. Katherine E. Kelly, "The Actresses' Franchise League Prepares For War: Feminist Theatre in Camouflage" Theatre Survey 35(1)(May 1994): 121-137.
  23. "Actresses", How the Vote was Won.
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