The Susan Glaspell Society

On June 26, 2004, The Provincetown Fringe Festival hosted the First Annual Susan Glaspell Marathon!

Many thanks to Artistic Director Marjorie Conn and Director Karen Maloney for providing this wonderful opportunity for theatre professionals and academic scholars to get together in Glaspell's beloved Provincetown to read, hear, and discuss Glaspell's plays.  Starting at 12:00 noon we read Trifles and Alison's House.  After a dinner break we returned to read The Outside and The Verge.  The event took place at The Provincetown Inn, right on the tip of Cape Cod, very appropriately the actual locus of The Outside.  It was, indeed, a marathon, and an exhilarating experience to hear and participate in these living, moving, and relevant works. 

Provincetown Fringe Director Karen Maloney and Cheryl Black

Sharon Friedman enjoys the readings

Alison's House -- J. Ellen Gainor as the  patriarch John Stanhope

The Verge -- Cheryl Black presents a  moving portrayal of Claire

Susan Meyer, Glaspell's goddaughter and namesake, converses with J. Ellen Gainor

Kristina Hinz-Bode survives reading Tom in The Verge

Visiting Susan's home at 564 Commercial Street, currently owned by Mr. & Mrs. William Teague, we found the sundial and thought of Susan posing for Jig's graceful statues:

“I like to remember that winter in Provincetown. The wind would shake the little house on the sand, but we kept the fire bright in the big stove in the dining-room. Jig was modeling the four figures for his sun-dial. Dawn—or the dreamer. She who faces the south—Noon, the work of the world. Sunset—work done, old age, the grave. And the North Star, the beyond-the-sun.” (Road to the Temple 278; photos by Don Sherblom, courtesy of Bill Teague, current owner of Glaspell's home in Provincetown, and the sun dial)