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 About
This original dramatic solo presentation has
fascinated hundreds of audiences, large and small, for years. It
has been performed in theatres in New York, Los Angeles, Edinburgh, Hong
Kong, Mexico as well as toured in the Great Plains Chautauqua and in
colleges, libraries, churches and other venues. Based on the
writings of Margaret Fuller - her diaries, letters, articles and
books, James has created an effective drama for today's audiences
that is adaptable
to various facilities, time spans and audience interest.
What Sponsors Need to Know:
Men,
Women and Margaret Fuller Fact Sheet
 "I assure you, Laurie, that I was impressed by the confidence of
your acting - its many thoughtfully planned stages - with the fact
that you are a powerfully courageous and brilliant individual
struggling in the pre-dawn of terrestrial accord to women, of all
the freedoms heretofore historically staked out for men."
- Buckminster Fuller, Great Grand Nephew of Margaret Fuller
 "Laurie James has done something truly wonderful in keeping the
spirit of Margaret Fuller alive. She honors her subject's dynamic
intellect and resolution to live a full life through an intoxicating
blend of scholarship, drama and passionate polemic."
- Lisa Paul Streitfeld, Cultural Critic/Curator
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Who Was Margaret Fuller?
Radical Intellect - 1810-1850
- First American to write a book about
equality for women.
- First editor of The Dial
magazine; set critical literary standards.
- First woman journalist on Horace
Greeley's newspaper, New York Daily Tribune.
- First woman foreign correspondent
under combat conditions.
- First to organize paid conversations
("rap sessions") for women.
- First woman to enter Harvard library
to pursue research, a giant step since colleges were
closed to women.
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Press
Recreating Historic Figures
By Barbara DeLatiner
Sunday, November 2, 1980
Margaret Fuller, the prophetic 19th-century feminist writer, and
Clarence Darrow, the 20th-century civil-libertarian lawyer, are making
the rounds of Island libraries and the universities this month - in
the persons of Laurie James and Mel Feit, two actors who are going
through the throes of recreating in free one-person performances the
lives, intimate and public, of the two complex individuals.
It is, Mrs. James said, an all-consuming task. Ever since she
stumbled on a biography of the almost-forgotten pioneer, she has been
devoted "to making her alive again in the hearts and minds of living
persons who have lost sight of who Margaret Fuller is."
[read full
article]
Actress-Author Devotes Herself to Making a Name for 19th-Century
Writer and Feminist
By Robert Koehler
Sunday, March 29, 1992
She was born Sarah Margaret Fuller. She died Sarah Margaret Fuller
Marchesa D'Ossoli. During those 40 years, between 1810 and 1850, she
struggled to be known simply as Margaret Fuller.
Over the past 20 years, actress-author Laurie James has struggled
to make Fuller's name known at all. Indeed, one of her three volumes
on Fuller is titled, "Why Margaret Fuller Ossoli Is Forgotten."
Explaining this has become her self-proclaimed crusade, and she has
brought it to Los Angeles with her one-woman performance, "Men, Women
and Margaret Fuller," at the Burbage Theatre.
[read full article]
"A brilliant one-woman performance by actress Laurie James."
- FYI, Harvard Graduate School of Education
"Laurie James elicited loud applause for her portrayal of Margaret
Fuller as an early-day feminist who declared, 'Let women be sea
captains, if they will.'"
- Mary Duffy, Newsday, Long Island, New York
"Mayor Dianne Feinstein, who enthusiastically issued a proclamation
making Sunday 'Margaret Fuller Day,' regretted she couldn’t make the
show. She's getting married later in the afternoon, but, she noted,
she was happy to celebrate her nuptials on 'Margaret Fuller Day,' and
to direct attention to the work and achievements of this pioneer in
the struggle for human rights."
- Mildred Hamilton, San Francisco Examiner
"Truly entertaining ... Convincing and intimate portrayal ... Made
the character come alive."
- Richard Pezzoli, Western Student Press, Suffolk Community
College, New York
"James was excellent in expressing the strong character and active
mind of Fuller ... A laudable portrait."
- Kitty MacVickar, The Hour, Norwalk, CT
"The small but diverse audience paid her one of its finest
compliments – we all stayed put. It is well known that one of the few
uninhibited pastimes of local audiences is their preference for
showing disapproval with their feet. Not only did no one walk out, but
the more readily understandable sections confirmed that we were all
with James."
- Deborah Singerman, TV Times, Hong Kong
"Margaret Fuller is revealed as a brave and perspicacious woman who
strove against the hypocrisy of the time."
- Ian Spring, The Scotsman, Edinburgh, Scotland
"I don’t regret the time I spent in the company of this Boston blue
stocking whose reverence for plain living and high thinking is
leavened with good humour, and whose account of being rowed out on
Walden Pond by the 23 year-old Thoreau is sensitively written and
affectionately delivered."
- Charles Osborne, The Daily Telegraph, Edinburgh, Scotland
"It was invigorating to speak with an author who holds great faith
and personal intrigue in the wisdom of her writing subject. During my
interview with James, at times I felt as if I were speaking with
Margaret Fuller herself."
- Linda Benzoni, The Women’s Record, Long Island, NY |
