Hazel Kirke

Hazel Kirke is a play in four acts written by American actor and dramatist Steele MacKaye. The play was written between 1878 and 1879 in the town of Dublin, New Hampshire.^[1] MacKaye meant it to be expressly for New York City's Madison Square Theatre, which MacKaye had recently renovated and completely remodeled. Originally titled An Iron Will, the play toured Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington until renovations on the Madison Square Theatre were complete. It premiered there on February 4, 1880 and the original production became immensely successful; it starred actress Effie Ellsler in the title role and ran for 486 consecutive performances^[2] before closing May 31, 1881.

Because MacKaye revolutionized the concept of multiple companies performing the same production simultaneously, by 1883 the play had been performed more than two thousand times. By the mid-1910s the play had been produced in England, Australia, Japan, and elsewhere.^[1] In 1916 it was adapted into a film starring Pearl White and produced at the Whartons Studio in Ithaca, New York.^[3]

Notes

References

• Murphy, Brenda. 1987. American Realism and American Drama, 1880–1940: 1880–1940. Cambridge University Press.
• Quinn, Arthur Hobson. 1917. Representative American plays. New York: The Century Co.

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