Margaret Webster
I just completed reading Margaret Webster: A Life in the Theater by Milly S. Barranger, I purchased it, along with Webster's own books Shakespeare without Tears and her autobiography: Don't Put your Daughter on the Stage after hearing about Webster's influential work as a woman director. I haven't read the other two yet, I thought I'd get a background before delving into Webster's own words, and I wasn't disappointed. The book is compelling, readable, and by the end I felt like I had such a picture of Webster's complex and beautiful life.
As Barranger says on the final page, "The director's legacy, like the theater, is often dismissed sa ephemeral--as intangible form. Margaret Webster's legacy is lodged in the accomplishment of a pioneering artist, defying time in the work of those artists, especially women, who follow knowingly or otherwise in her footprints."
I discovered in this book a connection which made me feel both an understanding, longing, sadness, and hope that is incredibly complex. I've read a lot of biographies of or writings from directors of note. And while Webster isn't the best known, her work didn't change the theatrical world like a Brook or Stanislavski, her work was monumental. Not just because she was a woman director on Broadway, in London, at the Metropolitan Opera; because she worked diligently on what she cared about, she built foundations that others have walked on, she had failures and triumphs and a lot of middling in between. In short, she wasn't one of these theatrical gods one reads about who could do no wrong, she was a real human being, working her tail off on creating work that reflected her aesthetic and values.
I feel very fortunate to have read this book, and recommend it as inspirational material. She truly had a glorious life in the theatre, and I'm thankful that this book exists to commemorate her.
As Barranger says on the final page, "The director's legacy, like the theater, is often dismissed sa ephemeral--as intangible form. Margaret Webster's legacy is lodged in the accomplishment of a pioneering artist, defying time in the work of those artists, especially women, who follow knowingly or otherwise in her footprints."
I discovered in this book a connection which made me feel both an understanding, longing, sadness, and hope that is incredibly complex. I've read a lot of biographies of or writings from directors of note. And while Webster isn't the best known, her work didn't change the theatrical world like a Brook or Stanislavski, her work was monumental. Not just because she was a woman director on Broadway, in London, at the Metropolitan Opera; because she worked diligently on what she cared about, she built foundations that others have walked on, she had failures and triumphs and a lot of middling in between. In short, she wasn't one of these theatrical gods one reads about who could do no wrong, she was a real human being, working her tail off on creating work that reflected her aesthetic and values.
I feel very fortunate to have read this book, and recommend it as inspirational material. She truly had a glorious life in the theatre, and I'm thankful that this book exists to commemorate her.
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