The Susan Glaspell Society

The Susan Glaspell Society is pleased to make available an abridged version of Susan Glaspell's play, Inheritors, edited by Iris Smith Fischer, University of Kansas.

This version, free to all, will enable more theatre groups and universities to stage this relevant and moving play. The only restriction is the request that Prof. Fischer and The Susan Glaspell Society be acknowledged in any program or print advertising connected with the production by including the following statement: "The script for this performance was adapted from the original by Iris Smith Fischer, with the permission of Valentina Cook, and in cooperation with The Susan Glaspell Society." Note that to perform any of the plays, permission of Glaspell's estate is required.

Inheritors-Introduction by Iris Smith Fischer

Inheritors-Act I

Inheritors-Act II Sc 1

Inheritors-Act II Sc 2

Inheritors-Act III

For photos and information about productions of the play, scroll down

Productions of Inheritors

The Metropolitan Playhouse, a New York resident theater "dedicated to exploring and re-vitalizing American literature and culture," staged a landmark production of Susan Glaspell's Inheritors on November 11 - December 11 2005, as part of their 14th season, devoted to the "Outsider." SG Society members provided post-show presentations on November 13 (Martha Carpentier, Sherry Engle, Sharon Friedman, and Monica Stufft) and on November 20 (J. Ellen Gainor). For a review by SG Society member Glenda Frank, click on link to New York Theatre Wire, below.

For more information about The Metropolitan Playhouse, 220A East Fourth St., New York, NY 10009, click on www.metropolitanplayhouse.org

Madeline Morton played by Margaret
Loesser Robinson. Photo Michelle DeBlasi.

Artistic Director, Alex Roe
Assoc. Artistic Director, Michael Bloom
Director, Yvonne Opffer Conybeare
Stage Manager, Pamela Hybridge
Scenic Design, Ryan Scott
Costume Design, Rebecca Lustig
Assistant Costume Design, Emily Pepper
Lighting Design, Alexander C. Senchak
Music/Sound Design, Ben Ruby
Violin, Ben Lively
Fight Director, Scott Barrow
Dramaturg, Michael Bloom

Photos courtesy of Michelle DeBlasi,
Irena Sapilak, and Mary Rose Devine

(scroll down)

"Why I never went to bed without leaving something on the stove for the new ones that might be coming."
Grandma Morton played by Sue Glausen Smith. Photo Irena Sapilak.

"There will one day be a college in these cornfields by the Mississippi because long ago a great dream was fought for in Hungary."

Silas Morton played by David Fraioli; Felix Fejevary I played by Tod Mason. Photo Irena Sapilak.

"The state will lose nothing in having a good
strong college here - a one-hundred-per-cent
American college." Felix Fejevary II played by
Tod Mason; Senator Lewis played by Sean Dill.
Photo Mary Rose Devine.

"He's an idealist. Something of the - man
of vision." Prof. Holden played by Peter Judd.
Photo Mary Rose Devine.

"Matthew Arnold. My idea of nowhere to go for a
laugh." Horace Fejevary played by Jeff Pagliano;
Fussie played by Samantha Needles.
Photo Mary Rose Devine.

"Well, I'm going to pretend - just for fun-
that the things we say about ourselves are true." Madeline played by Margaret Loesser Robinson. Photo Mary Rose Devine.

"Do you know that in America today there are
women in our prisons for saying no more than
you've said here to me!" Margaret Loesser Robinson and Tod Mason. Photo Mary Rose Devine.

"There's just nothing to life if years of love don't count for something."
Isabel Fejevary played by Sue Glausen Smith. Photo Michelle DeBlasi.

"If I could make the wind stand still!
I want to turn the wind around!"
Ira Morton played by David Fraioli.
Photo Michelle DeBlasi.

"Grown up now - and going off and leaving
me alone. You too - the last one. And - what for?
There used to be so many in this house."
David Fraioli and Margaret Loesser Robinson.
Photo Michelle DeBlasi.

For PDF file of Metropolitan Playhouse Inheritors Program

Online review by SG Society member Glenda Frank, "In a Red State, 1920":
http://www.nytheatre-wire.com/

Online review from Gay City News:

"The Inheritors--No single play this year contained as much pure prescient
intelligence as Susan Glaspell’s 1921 work, which tackled xenophobia,
directed toward both American and East Indians, pernicious nationalism, the
suppression of free speech, prison reform, and academic strife, making this
perhaps even more relevant today. On a shoestring and the tiniest stage,
Metropolitan Playhouse served the work with the glory it deserved."

http://www.gaycitynews.com/gcn_452/strikemusesand.html

Online review from New York Theatre: http://www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/inher2524.htm