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Old World Character/Modern Actor: The Transnational Image of Maria Ouspenskaya

2023; Taylor & Francis; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10509208.2023.2228174

1543-5326

Scott Balcerzak,

Theater, Performance, and Music History

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Additional informationNotes on contributorsScott BalcerzakScott Balcerzak is chair and professor of film and literature in the Department of English at Northern Illinois University. He is the author of Beyond Method: Stella Adler and the Male Actor (Wayne State University Press, 2018) and Buffoon Men: Classic Hollywood Comedians and Queered Masculinity (Wayne State University Press, 2013). He has also written on film and performance for Film History, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, Journal of Film and Video, Camera Obscura, and other publications.Notes1 Undated, source unidentified press clipping, Inez Wallace, “It's Never Too Late to Act,” Maria Ouspenskaya Collection, Department of Special Collections, University Library, University of California, Los Angeles. Quoted in Heilman (1999 Heilman, Pamela Sue. 1999. “The American Career of Maria Ouspenskaya (1887–1949).” PhD diss., Louisiana State University. [Google Scholar], 201).2 Butler (2022 Butler, Isaac. 2022. The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act. New York: Bloomsbury. [Google Scholar], 131). During her days teaching in New York City, Ouspenskaya’s severe personality could partly be attributed to her struggles with alcohol. Though, former West Coast student Nellie McCaslin did not recall any signs of alcoholism when studying with her during the early 1940s. McCaslin remembers a regimented studio environment, with no food nor drink allowed, that included strict dress codes and standing when “Madame” entered the studio. Heilman (1999 Heilman, Pamela Sue. 1999. “The American Career of Maria Ouspenskaya (1887–1949).” PhD diss., Louisiana State University. [Google Scholar], 198–199).3 Unidentified clipping, Variety, (2 April 1941) from the Maria Ouspenskaya Collection at University of California, Los Angeles, quoted in Heilman (1999 Heilman, Pamela Sue. 1999. “The American Career of Maria Ouspenskaya (1887–1949).” PhD diss., Louisiana State University. [Google Scholar], 194).4 Ouspenskaya’s appearances in different studio and independent productions reached its height in the late 1930s and early 1940s. After 1943, with the closing of her Hollywood school in 1942, her acting career slowed due to health concerns, appearing in only four films before her death in 1949. See Heilman (1999 Heilman, Pamela Sue. 1999. “The American Career of Maria Ouspenskaya (1887–1949).” PhD diss., Louisiana State University. [Google Scholar], 190–249), for an overview of her later film career.5 It would be an oversimplification to say the tours themselves were solely responsible for bringing Modern acting styles to America; yet, their impact cannot be underestimated. As Butler reports, “As the tour went on, and the company demonstrated the best ensemble acting America had ever seen, anybody who cared about drama wanted to know the Moscow Art Theatre’s methods. How did they prepare for a role? How did the ensemble work? What was the company ethos?” After the first tour, Boleslawski, with Stanislavski’s permission, began teaching stateside. Other teachers, like Ouspenskaya, would soon follow. Butler (2022 Butler, Isaac. 2022. The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act. New York: Bloomsbury. [Google Scholar], 123–124).6 Senelick (1992 Senelick, Laurence. 1992. “Introduction.” In Wandering Stars: Russian Émigré Theatre: 1905–1940, edited by Laurence Senelick, ix–xx. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press. [Google Scholar], xvi). For more on the life and career of Michael Chekhov, see Marowitz (2004 Marowitz, Charles. 2004. The Other Chekhov: A Biography of Michael Chekhov, the Legendary Actor, Director & Theorist. New York: Applesauce Books. [Google Scholar]).7 Gergely (2012 Gergely, Gábor. 2012. Foreign Devils: Exile and Host Nation in Hollywood’s Golden Age. New York: Peter Lang. [Google Scholar], 32). Emphasis added.8 Lorence (1993 Lorence, James J. 1993. “The ‘Foreign Policy of Hollywood’: Interventionist Sentiment in American Film, 1938–1941.” In Hollywood as Mirror: Changing Views of “Outsiders” and “Enemies” in American Movies, edited by Robert Brent Toplin, 95–116. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. [Google Scholar], 103). Notably, The Mortal Storm still faced censorship as it adapted the 1937 Phyllis Bottome novel, particularly in how it could never have a character say the words “Jew” or “Jewish,” instead using “non-Aryan,” as MGM wanted to avoid explicit discussions of antisemitism. Though, discerning viewers could gather most of the persecuted German characters were Jewish by their names and cultural coding.9 Along with this production, Sullavan and Stewart costarred as love interests in Next Time We Love (Dir. Edward H. Griffith, 1936), The Shopworn Angel (Dir. H. C. Potter, 1938), and The Shop around the Corner (Dir. Ernst Lubitsch, 1940).10 Maria Ouspenskaya, ts., “Guest Column for Hedda Hopper,” 1939, Maria Ouspenskaya Collection, Department of Special Collections, University Library, University of California, Los Angeles, quoted in Heilman (1999 Heilman, Pamela Sue. 1999. “The American Career of Maria Ouspenskaya (1887–1949).” PhD diss., Louisiana State University. [Google Scholar], 190).11 McCaslin documented her experiences in a 1994 letter to researcher Pamela Sue Heilman, which is quoted in her dissertation, (1999, 197).