Scene 1a
<GEORGIA is on stage alone dressed severely in black. She is eyeing Hartley paintings. She wants to take them down. She mumbles and stares at the Portrait of a German Officer which is lit centered on the wall. It is as if she has been warned off from touching it. She paws at some of her charcoal drawings that are organic abstractions that focus on an image of a shell.>
<STIEGLITZ joins her from stage left.>
GEORGIA
Noisy pictures.
STIEGLITZ
Just drop your sketches off. Give Hartley the room to take his paintings down. He hates the end of shows.
GEORGIA
I don't know why you show him.
STIEGLITZ
I show him because he's an important American artist.
Marsden Hartley
Marsden Hartley, American painter and poet (1877-1943), was a gay Modernist artist who painted in a bewildering series of styles while traveling the globe. He was a leading member of the Stieglitz group including John Marin, Arthur Dove, Charles Demuth, and Stieglitz’s second wife, Georgia O’Keefe. He fought hard to have his vividly colored pictures hung and did not have much success until late in his career.
Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter. In addition to his groundbreaking photography, Stieglitz ran three New York art galleries: 291, The Intimate Gallery, and An American Place. Here he advocated for and controlled the careers of his group of American modernist artists. He was married to his most successful find, the painter Georgia O'Keeffe.
Georgia O’Keeffe
Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986) was an American painter. She was best known for her large floral paintings, depictions of New York City skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. Stieglitz discovered her and managed her career as they married. In 1929 she began spending more time in New Mexico as an escape from New York City and Stieglitz.
Hart Crane
Hart Crane (1899–1932) was an American modernist poet. Reading his poetry is a challenge as the logic of his metaphors is not easy to decode. As allies in modernism, he was friends with many of the Stieglitz group. His most ambitious work, The Bridge, is an epic poem that delights in modern, urban culture. He jumped overboard from a ship leaving Mexico.
Charles Demuth
Charles Demuth (1883–1935) was an American painter. He painted in varying styles including intense flowers, precise urban landscapes, homoerotic watercolors of sailors and gay bathhouses, and poster portraits. He was diabetic—an early insulin patient—and elegantly sported a cane. He resided with his mother in Lancaster, Pennsylvania but was frequently sighted out and about in the fleshpots of New York City.
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THE LAST CONCERT
I have begun researching a play about a concert the German soprano, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, and the Canadian pianist, Glenn Gould, gave at Carnegie Hall in 1966. This concert was the last public performance of the increasingly reclusive Gould. Their temperaments and interpretations clashed particularly over the performance of Richard Strauss songs. My tentative title is The Last Concert.
Elizabeth Schwarzkopf
Schwarzkopf was a perfectionist—particularly in the Strauss repertoire where she saw herself as the purveyor of the composer’s original intent. Trying to dramatize the Schwarzkopf persona is a real challenge. Her musical taste and past are open to many interpretations. I'm struggling with how to portray her. Any suggestions?
Glenn Gould
Gould had had it with the circus atmosphere of playing concerts before the public. Why did he agree to do a recital with Schwarzkopf? He did not so much play Strauss as he did re-compose him. What would Strauss have thought about his interpretation?