Press for Laurie’s Solo Drama on
Margaret Fuller
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."
Over the last 15 years, Mrs. James who lives in Dix HIlls with her
husband, Clifton, a character actor who is appearing in "American
Buffalo" with Al Pacino, and the alst of her five children, ages 9 to
27, who are still at home, has been researching, writing and polishing
"Still Beat Noble Hearts," her "dramatic portrait of an American
genius."
She has taken time out for other things, notably to put her early
drama training and summer-stock experience to use in developing and
presenting arts-in-education poetry programs in the schools. But these
were just interludes.
Her real "mission in life," she said, was Miss Fuller, the New
England writer and critic who was Horace Greeley's first female
reporter and war correspondent and whose book "Woman in the 19th
Century" essentially laid the groundwork for the feminist movement in
the United States.
[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.
James knows well that the name Margaret Fuller is hardly in the
pantheon of Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, Will Rogers and other
American literary voices that in recent years have risen from the dead
in the form of actors from Hal Holbrook to Julie Harris.
At least, not yet. Los Angeles has declared today "Margaret Fuller
Day" and James' performance this afternoon will be highlighted by a
city proclamation and a panel discussion of Fuller's legacy.
As James ticks off reason after reason that Fuller may be the great
forgotten genius of American letters and feminism, her voice sounds
bold and utterly confident.
[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, Hongkong
"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
"The packed house made up of students and faculty watched as
Xanthippe pleaded with Socrates to save himself at his infamous
blashphemy trial. An era from the philosophy textbooks came to life
... "
- Catherine Soroko, The Campus Slate, New York Institute of
Technology
