Sarah Bernhardt was one of the stage’s most admired actresses. She was born in Paris, France where she became a star and later traveled the world touring. Bernhardt didn’t start out as the best but did rise to the success she is known for today. She was known for her romantic looks and her melodious voice, her natural acting style and sometimes her tempestuous attitude. Bernhardt lived quite a life, from her many famous lovers, her fabulous clothing, and her travels performing on stages all over the world and even becoming a star of silent movies. She was what we know today as a “drama queen” in many ways. She wasn’t successful right away, but did rise to her stardom. As stated in The Divine Sarah, even Sigmund Freud who saw her in a performance (Sardou’s Theodora) has said “…I believed at once everything she said…, it is incredible what postures she can assume and how every limb and joint acts with her.”
Sarah Bernhardt was born Henriette Rosine Bernard in 1844 to women named Julie Bernard, who was of Jewish descent and little is known about her father. What is known about her mother, is that she was a legendary courtesan and was rarely home, and when she was home, there were always rich men around. Sarah was a wild child who, when she wasn’t sick, did what she wanted and threw many temper tantrums. Her mother wanted Sarah to follow in her footsteps and entertain men for money, the idea made Sarah sick (although later she learned that there is a thin line between acting and prostituting), she told her mom she was to become a nun. That all changed when she saw Racine’s Britannicus at the Comedie Francaise. She planned on attending the Conservatoire, and in 1860 she did where she was trained for two years.
In 1862, at the age of 18 she made her first debut as the lead in Racine’s Iphigenie. Sarah often suffered from stage fright and her dire performance received some bad reviews. According to Gold and Fizdale, Francisque Sarcey, Paris’s most powerful critic, was quoted to say “[she] is remarkably beautiful. She carries herself well and pronounces her words with perfect clarity. That is all that can be said at the moment.” Her next appearance was in Scribe’s Valerie which was virtually unnoticed, and her third debut in Moliere’s Les Femmes Savantes was not any better.
...t way, like Varley’s 1930 Vera, she remains a mystery, a forgotten artist, best known for he work as a muse, model, and wife. It is often wondered what kind of work she would have done if she had remained single mindedly focused on her art like the famous Emily Carr
...stablished herself as an artist in the 17th century, thing that for a woman was not so trivial!
Her lasting career was not given to her easily, therefore, creating an inspiring story full of hardships and success. Ever since she was a little girl, her dream was to become a successful and famous dancer. In New York City, when she was trying to fulfill her dream, she was unable to find a job in the theatre department. Instead of being discouraged, she decided to make something good come from it. She choreographed her own routines, created her own costumes, and organized solo recitals for audiences to enjoy. This event led her to the biggest adventure in her life that would later impact the world. She was invited to return back to London to pursue her education in the performing arts, so that she could further improve her talents that would make up her entire career.
Joan Baez was born on Staten Island in 1941. Her mother’s name was Joan also, and her father’s name was Vincent. She spent a part of her childhood in Iraq because her father had a job there. While she was fourteen, her family moved back to the U.S. and lived in California.
At nineteen she married Charles-Guillaume Le Normant d'Etoiles. It was an arranged marriage, and did not last for very long, despite the fact that he adored her. She had two children with d'Etoiles, a boy who died in childbirth, and a daughter nicknamed 'fan fan'. She founded her own salon at her husband's estate, and was joined by many renowned intellectuals, such as Voltaire. She rose in society at an alarming rate, due to those she associated with, and her friends. After all, that is a fantastic strategy, to befriend the highest class and earn their acquaintances respect.
By studying philosophy Edith came to Christianity. She was one of the first women to be admitted to university studies in Germany. She was an outstanding student. After leaving the University of Breslau, she went to the University of Góttingin to study with Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology. She became interested in his philosophy and when he moved to the University of Frieburg he invited Edith to join him there as his assistant. She then received her doctorate in leading philosophers.
Ella Josephine Baker was born in Virginia, and at the age of seven Ella Baker moved with her family to Littleton, South Carolina, where they settled on her grandparent's farmland her grandparents had worked as slaves. Ella Baker's early life was steeped in Southern black culture. Her most vivid childhood memories were of the strong traditions of self-help, mutual cooperation, and sharing of economic resources that encompassed her entire community. Because there was no local secondary school, in 1918, when Ella was fifteen years old, her parents sent her to Shaw boarding school in Raleigh, the high school academy of Shaw University. Ella excelled academically at Shaw, graduating as valedictorian of her college class from Shaw University in Raleigh in 1927.
Marilyn Monroe was liked by many, society liked her for the sheer fact that she never portrayed herself as famous, but as a human. She was the epiphany of Hollywoods misguided. She created this noble character that people admired, they also admired her f...
Uta Hagen born on June 12th 1919, was a German-born American actress and a drama teacher who passed away on January 14th 2004 at age 84. Uta Hagen found herself in the theatrical element when she first joined a production Wisconsin High School finding her interest in theatre. Hagen started to develop deeper interest in theatre and started studying acting at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. After leaving New York spending just one semester at her University, she got her first professional role of Hamlet. From that point in her life, she started to get more and more involved in different play and started to make goals in where she wanted to work which made her a great achiever and a actress. Uta Hagen was on the hollywood blacklist where she found opportunities to get involved in acting in several different theatres. Hagen showed involvement in broadway, television, movies and continuously rise as an actress. Hagen has achieved the Tony Award several times and was nominated to the American The...
Adèle Ratignolle uses art to beautify her home. Madame Ratignolle represents the ideal mother-woman (Bloom 119). Her chief concerns and interests are for her husband and children. She was society’s model of a woman’s role. Madame Ratignolle’s purpose for playing the pia...
Working at her father’s clothing shop, she became very knowledgeable about expensive textiles and embellishments, which were captured in her works later in career. She was able to capture the beauty and lavishness of fabrics in portraits of aristocratic women.
Angela Bassett was born on August 16, 1958, in New York City. Angela Bassett went to the Yale School of Drama and went ahead to star in the Tina Turner biopic What's Love Got to Do With It, for which the on-screen character got an Academy Award designation and a Golden Globe Award. Different movies have included Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back. In St. Petersburg, Florida Angela and her sister, D'nette, was raised by her single parent, Betty, a social specialist. On a secondary school trip, she got to be motivated to act in the wake of seeing a Kennedy Center creation of the exemplary story Of Mice and Men.
As soon as an actor steps foot onto the stage, the audience sees the actor’s gender and interprets that character accordingly. The character of Maria Rainer in Rogers and Hammerstein’s The Sound of Music isn’t just a high on life happy person singing about the Austrian mountains and the joy they bring her; she’s a young postulant nun who is unsure of her future. In Maria’s first encounter with Captain Von Trapp, he is a stern man walking around his living room in frustration. How the character of Maria g...
Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jeane Mortenson. Mortenson came from her mother, Gladys Baker, misspelling the name Mortensen after Edward Mortensen whom Gladys claimed was Norma’s father. Marilyn has also at times gone by the name of Norma Jean Baker. Marilyn Monroe is the name Norma Jeane took on at the request of 20th Century Fox executive Ben Lyons. Marilyn after a 1920’s actress and Monroe after her mother’s maiden name (Taraborrelli, 2009, p. 115).
Despite that, Madonna and Callas’s public reputations are far apart.√ good Callas was considered a tragic woman during the height and end of her fame,; her image was of a fragile woman and she was seen as ‘mirroring in her life aspects’ (Phillip,, R,. 2008, p.175) when she performed on stage. Operatic roles within the twentieth century are mostly heart-breaking, where ‘almost all of the characters die, on stage or just off it, through suicide or murder’ (Phillip, R,. 2008, p. 175) and these characters were Callas’s speciality, giving her a feeble image. In contrast, Madonna is considered a ‘bankable image, carefully and continually constructed in an era of media globalisation’ (Nick Jones, 2008, p. 168), and greatly known as a ‘Pop Queen’ who relies on the public for her reputation by continually conforming to society styles to increase her performances, sales and reputation. √ good observation. Perhaps emphasise the fact that in comparison to Callas, Madonna can be seen as very much in control. She’s not a victim.