Ruth Draper

Ruth Draper (December 2, 1884 – December 30, 1956) was an American actress, dramatist and noted diseuse[1] who specialized in character-driven monologues and monodrama. Her best-known pieces include The Italian Lesson, Three Women and Mr. Clifford, Doctors and Diets, and A Church in Italy.

Ruth Draper
Portrait of Ruth Draper by John Singer Sargent, 1913
Born(1884-12-02)December 2, 1884
New York City, New York, United States
DiedDecember 30, 1956(1956-12-30) (aged 72)
New York City, New York, United States
OccupationStage actress

Early life and family

Ruth Draper was born in New York City, the youngest child of Dr. William Henry and Ruth (née Dana) Draper. Her father, who was born in Brattleboro, Vermont,[2][3] had the affluence to support a large family with the help of several servants.[4] Ruth Draper's mother was the daughter of Charles Anderson Dana, editor and publisher of The New York Sun and had married Dr. Draper in 1878 some years after the loss of his first wife, Lucy.[4][5] Her nephew, Paul Draper, was a noted dancer and actor. Draper's second cousin was the society architect Paul Phipps, father of British actress Joyce Grenfell (Grenfell's career as a monologist was directly inspired by Draper). Her nephew Raimund Sanders Draper was a heroic WWII pilot.[6][7]

Career

Ruth Draper's inspiration to become an actress came from the Polish pianist Ignacy Jan Paderewski, a friend of her family.[8] She made her Broadway debut in the 1916 play A Lady's Name by Cyril Harcourt,[9] and by 1921 was becoming well known as monologist, or more specifically diseuse, appearing in monodramas.

Thus, Draper dominated the field of professional solo performance during the second quarter of the twentieth century, performing with great success throughout the United States and Europe. Draper's one-person shows differed in kind from the majority of the early lyceum and Chautauqua solo performers coming before her, as the monologues/monodramas she performed were original characters as opposed to selections of published literature.[10]

With a chair, shawl and occasional table as her only props, Draper entertained audiences in a half dozen languages worldwide for nearly forty years.[8] Her best-known pieces include The Italian Lesson, Three Women and Mr. Clifford, Doctors and Diets, and A Church in Italy.

Ruth Draper as a Dalmatian Peasant by John Singer Sargent

Such theatre legends as George Bernard Shaw, Thornton Wilder, John Gielgud, Katharine Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier, Laurence Olivier, and Uta Hagen were among those dazzled by Draper's artistry and talent, as were authors Henry James, Henry Adams, Edith Wharton and Agatha Christie. Draper inspired characters in two of Christie's works — Carlotta Adams in the 1933 novel Lord Edgware Dies,[11] and Aspasia Glen in the short story "The Dead Harlequin".

In 1951 King George VI of the United Kingdom awarded Ruth Draper honorary membership in the Order of the British Empire with the rank of Commander (CBE). On April 29, 1953, she had lunch with C. S. Lewis the day after he saw her performance at the New Theatre in Oxford. Nearly a quarter century earlier she gave a performance at Windsor Castle after an invitation from King George V and Queen Mary.[12]

Draper had many relationships in Italy, in large part through her connection with Lauro De Bosis, a young Italian poet and writer who died in 1931 after a daring flight over Rome during which he threw thousands of leaflets denouncing Benito Mussolini and the National Fascist Party.

Death

Ruth Draper died on December 30, 1956, of an apparent heart attack,[13] just hours after giving a performance on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre. Draper's family had a summer home in Islesboro, Maine, which she purchased from her family and where she spent increasing amounts of time in her later years.[14] A short biography of Draper is among several collected by the Anglo-Italian writer Iris Origo in her 1984 book, A Need to Testify.

Recordings

Recordings of Draper's monologues have influenced many contemporary writers and performers, including Joyce Grenfell, Lily Tomlin, Mike Nichols, Julie Harris, Simon Callow, Emma Thompson, Charles Busch, David Mamet, Julia Sweeney, Annette Bening, Maureen Lipman and John Lithgow.

Awards and honors

In 2019, the "Complete recorded monologues, Ruth Draper (1954-1956)" was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[15]

References
  1. Sir John Gielgud: A Life in Letters By John Gielgud - 2005 pg. 516
  2. US Passport Application - December 2, 1884
  3. The Atlanta Constitution April 27, 1901
  4. US Census records 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900
  5. The Bridgeport Post, December 31, 1956 pg. 16
  6. Draper, Ruth; Dorothy Warren (1999-11-03). The letters of Ruth Draper: self-portrait of an actress, 1920-1956. SIU Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-2188-9.
  7. "The Spitfire: Britain's Flying past". BBC. 2011-09-22. Archived from the original on September 25, 2011.
  8. The Ottawa Citizen December 31, 1956
  9. IBDb.com
  10. Gentile, John S. (1989). Cast of One. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. pp. 104–105.
  11. In her Autobiography, Christie says, "I thought how clever she was and how good her impersonations were; the wonderful way she could transform herself from a nagging wife to a peasant girl kneeling in a cathedral. Thinking about her led me to the book Lord Edgware Dies." Christie, Agatha. An Autobiography (p. 437). Collins, 1977; ISBN 0-00-216012-9.
  12. The New York Times December 19, 1951 pg. 41
  13. The New York Times December 31, 1956 pg. 13
  14. Ruth Draper
  15. Andrews, Travis M. (March 20, 2019). "Jay-Z, a speech by Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and 'Schoolhouse Rock!' among recordings deemed classics by Library of Congress". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 25, 2019.

Further reading
  • Young, Jordan R. (1989). Acting Solo: The Art of One-Person Shows. Beverly Hills: Past Times Publishing Co.
  • Catron, Louis E. (2000). The Power of One: The Solo Play for Playwrights, Actors, and Directors. Portsmouth, N.H: Heinemann.
  • Origo, Iris (1984). A Need to Testify. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
  • Gentile, John S. (1989). Cast of One: One-Person Shows from the Chautauqua Platform to the Broadway Stage. University of Illinois Press.
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