Nina Moise

Nina Moise (July 15, 1890 – December 14, 1968) was an American actress, vocal coach, and theatrical and film director.

Nina Moise
Nina Moise, in 1919.
Born
Nina Ethel Moise

July 15, 1890
San Francisco, California
DiedDecember 14, 1968
Los Angeles, California
OccupationActress, director

Early life and education

Nina Ethel Moise was from San Francisco,[1] the daughter of Philip Henry Moise and Emma Moise.[2] She had older sisters Clarice and Hazel.[3] Clarice married British explorer and author Arthur de Carle Sowerby in Shanghai in 1925,[4] and was managing editor of The China Journal.[5][6]

Nina Moise graduated from Girls' High School in 1908,[7] and like her sisters attended Stanford University, where she was president of the Associated Women Students, and ran for editor of the school's literary monthly, the Sequoia.[8] In 1911, she became the first woman student to address the Stanford student body.[9] She graduated from Stanford in 1912.[10]

Career

Theatre

Moise was an actress who became a theatrical and film director.[11][12] She was both an actress and director with the Jessie Bonstelle company in Detroit. In 1914, she gave a dramatic reading for the Ebell Club in Los Angeles.[13] In 1917 she was named the first professional director of the Provincetown Players.[14][15] "Tactful handling of temperaments on Nina's part pulled the whole bill through to success," recalled Edna Kenton.[16] She directed seventeen productions, collaborating with playwrights Floyd Dell, Eugene O'Neill,[17] Neith Boyce, and Susan Glaspell, among others, before she left the Provincetown Players in May 1918.[18][19] Later in 1918, during World War I, she was head of the educational department of the San Francisco chapter of the American Red Cross.[20]

In 1921,[21] Moise began as company director of the Santa Barbara Community Arts Players.[22] At Santa Barbara, she directed plays performed at the Lobero Theatre, and actors including Eva Le Gallienne.[23] She also appeared on stage, including in the starring role in Within the Law in 1922, when the scheduled star fell ill.[24] In 1922, she took a six-month leave to study developments in theatre in Europe.[25] In 1924, she spoke at the annual meeting of the Drama League of America, on a panel titled "The Non-Professional Theatre".[26] She left the Santa Barbara Players in 1926, succeeded by Irving Pichel.[27]

Film

Moise became known as a film director in 1933. She told a newspaper that year, "I don't want to be hard-boiled, but it would be convenient right now if I could be."[28] Her film credits included work as assistant to Cecil B. DeMille on This Day and Age (1933), as associate director on Cradle Song (1933),[29] and as a dialogue coach on My Marriage (1936), High Noon (1952), and The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing (1955). She helped performers including Buster Crabbe, Akim Tamiroff, Simone Simon, and Claire Trevor improve their voices or change accents. She also coached the voice actors on Disney films including Snow White (1937) and Pinocchio (1940).[30]

Personal life

Moise may have had a personal relationship with Eugene O'Neill.[31] In 1934 and 1935 she traveled to Shanghai.[32][33] She died in 1968, aged 78, in Los Angeles, California.

References
  1. University, Stanford (1921). Alumni Directory and Ten-year Book. p. 373.
  2. "Born". San Francisco Call. July 16, 1890. p. 8. Retrieved August 31, 2020 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  3. "Stanford Girl is Wed". The San Francisco Examiner. 1912-06-13. p. 7. Retrieved 2020-08-31 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. "Wedding announcement, Shanghai (China) to Robert Sterling Clark, New York (N.Y.), 1925 December 3". The Clark, Digital Collections. Retrieved 2020-08-31.
  5. STEVENS, KEITH (1998). "NATURALIST, AUTHOR, ARTIST, EXPLORER AND EDITOR AND AN ALMOST FORGOTTEN PRESIDENT: Arthur de Carle Sowerby 1885 - 1954: President of the North China Branch of The Royal Asiatic Society 1935 - 1940". Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 38: 121–136. ISSN 0085-5774. JSTOR 23889812.
  6. "Wife Manages, Husband Edits, Sowerby Plan". The Honolulu Advertiser. 1928-08-24. p. 3. Retrieved 2020-08-31 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. "High School Girls To Put On Opera". San Francisco Call. June 12, 1908. p. 16. Retrieved August 31, 2020 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  8. "Woman Seeks Editorship". San Francisco Call. April 20, 1912. p. 17. Retrieved August 31, 2020 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  9. "College Woman is Given Honor". The San Francisco Call. 1911-09-07. p. 5. Retrieved 2020-08-31 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Palo Alto". San Jose Mercury-News. April 21, 1912. p. 24. Retrieved August 31, 2020 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  11. "Locals Will Present Play by Tarkington". Morning Press. February 8, 1921. p. 10. Retrieved August 31, 2020 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  12. "Third Woman Invades Man's Realm of Picture Directing". The Los Angeles Times. 1933-08-13. p. 29. Retrieved 2020-08-31 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. "Lecture and Read to Ebell Club Women". Los Angeles Herald. November 24, 1914. p. 9. Retrieved August 31, 2020 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  14. "Nina Moise Made Movie Director". The New York Times. 1933-07-25. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-08-31.
  15. Black, Cheryl (May 1995). "Technique and Tact: Nina Moise Directs the Provincetown Players". Theatre Survey. 36 (1): 55–64. doi:10.1017/S0040557400006487. ISSN 0040-5574.
  16. Kenton, Edna (2004-01-01). The Provincetown Players and the Playwrights' Theatre, 1915-1922. McFarland. p. 52. ISBN 978-0-7864-1778-0.
  17. Bryer, Jackson R.; Bogard, Travis; Kenton, Edna; Smyth, Bernadette (1997). "[The Provincetown Players and The Playwrights' Theatre]". The Eugene O'Neill Review. 21 (1/2): 4–160. ISSN 1040-9483. JSTOR 29784595.
  18. Black, Cheryl (2002). The Women of Provincetown, 1915–1922. University of Alabama Press. pp. 97–100. ISBN 978-0-8173-1112-4.
  19. Cobrin, Pamela (2009). From Winning the Vote to Directing on Broadway: The Emergence of Women on the New York Stage, 1880-1927. University of Delaware Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-0-87413-058-4.
  20. "Players' Club Bills Miss Nina Moise". The San Francisco Examiner. 1918-10-20. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-08-31 – via Newspapers.com.
  21. "Miss Nina Moise Chosen Director of Arts Players". Morning Press. February 4, 1921. p. 5. Retrieved August 31, 2020 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  22. Fliotsos, Anne; Vierow, Wendy (2008-06-09). American Women Stage Directors of the Twentieth Century. University of Illinois Press. pp. 8–9. ISBN 978-0-252-03226-4.
  23. "Community Theatres". The Drama Magazine. 15: 134–135. March 1925.
  24. "Nina Moise to Play Lead in 'Within the Law'; Seat Sale Gains Brisker". Morning Press. January 31, 1922. p. 6. Retrieved August 31, 2020 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  25. "German Theater Leads World in Technic". Morning Press. October 7, 1922. p. 5. Retrieved August 31, 2020 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  26. "The Drama League of America, program". The Drama Magazine. 14: 266. 1924.
  27. MacGowan, Kenneth; Seldes, Gilbert; Hume, Samuel J.; Brown, Gilmor; Glass, Everett; Moise, Nina; Muni, Paul; Nichols, Dudley; von Sternberg, Josef; Sproul, Robert G.; Freud, Ralph (1954-12-01). "Irving Pichel (1891-1954): Wonderful to Have Had You with Us". The Quarterly of Film Radio and Television. 9 (2): 118–119. doi:10.2307/1209968. ISSN 1549-0068. JSTOR 1209968.
  28. "Being Hard-Boiled Would Help Director". Cumberland Sunday Times. 1933-08-06. p. 6. Retrieved 2020-08-31 – via Newspapers.com.
  29. "Woman Made Film Director". The Los Angeles Times. 1933-07-24. p. 16. Retrieved 2020-08-31 – via Newspapers.com.
  30. Othman, Frederick C. (1940-02-17). "Voice of Americans Pains Movie Speech Teacher". Tampa Bay Times. p. 18. Retrieved 2020-08-31 – via Newspapers.com.
  31. Boulton, Agnes (2014-01-10). Part of a Long Story: "Eugene O'Neill as a Young Man in Love". McFarland. pp. 30–31, note 30. ISBN 978-0-7864-8553-6.
  32. "Asama Maru Embarks 200 Passengers Here". San Pedro News Pilot. July 30, 1934. Retrieved August 31, 2020 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  33. Lapham, Lewis (1935-01-03). "On the Gangplank". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 24. Retrieved 2020-08-31 – via Newspapers.com.
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