New Athens Players Podcast

Glaspell's story about a plucky little paper boy and the dog he ends up feeling tremendous affection for was originally published as "The Anarchist—His Dog: The Story of Stubby’s Fight for Hero" in American Magazine in June 1912, and was included in Glaspell's collection of short stories, Lifted Masks , in the same year. As often in Glaspell's works, a character's (or a s...

One of the creative influences on the Provincetown Players, especially on Eugene O'Neill, was the Swedish writer August Strindberg (1849-1912). In January 1924, the company staged Strindberg's one-act play The Spook Sonata (also known as The Ghost Sonata), in the English translation by Edwin Bjorkman. Strindberg's bleak modernism, his highly subjective, expressionistic style and his formal experim...

Originally published in Red Book Magazine in July 1911, "One's Self-Respect" is a fairly early story of Susan Glaspell that had been neglected and forgotten through decades of collection and study of her work, but was brought to light (along with a few other stories) by Noelia Hernando-Real in a chapter of Susan Glaspell in Context , edited by J. Ellen Gainor (Cambridge, 2023); in on...

Eugene O'Neill wrote this short play for the Provincetown Players' 1916 season. It is an experiment of sorts, an attempt to see what could be done with pessimistic, modernistic monologue. Mrs. Rowland is the constant focus, as she complains to and about her bohemian, ne'er-do-well husband Alfred, who is in the next room, only his arm ever making an appearance on stage. While the portra...

"The Girl from Down-Town" is an example of Susan Glaspell's early writing, coming soon after her graduation from Drake University and clearly showing its author's familiarity with the world of college students, while also thinking about the responsibility of college students for the larger world, the world of "Down-Town." The story was originally published in Youth’s Co...

In this story, Susan Glaspell presents the narrator as a dear friend observing the relationship between the married couple, Katherine and Philip Hoyt, and meditating on how they navigated a growing disability. Ultimately the piece grows into a beautiful and affecting reminiscence -- a deep rumination on what makes people matter so deeply to each other and also on what gives them strength as indivi...

This Christmas tear-jerker was Susan Glaspell's first published story, appearing in Davenport's Weekly Outlook in December 1896. Some of her later story-telling patterns are clearly visible in this early work: The importance of animals and human sympathy in a harsh, difficult world. It's a positive Christmas message, but be warned: Have some tissues handy!

How can we best preserve and honor the memory of a dear one who has passed away? In "His Smile," Susan Glaspell gives us an unforgettable picture of a mourning widow who finds some solace in the brief, unexpected appearance of her late husband on film as an extra in a motion picture playing for a limited time in the theaters. The story, read here by Sophia Kilburg, was first printed in the Pictori...

In "Freckles M'Grath," Susan Glaspell tells how a cheeky elevator boy was inspired to have a major effect on the plans and councils of the mighty men of power and industry. This humorous by-way in the world of politics, reflecting something of Glaspell's time as a reporter in Des Moines, was originally published with a title highlighting the outsized political effect a young enthusiast was able to...

On July 30, 2024, New Athens Players presented a night of readers' theater, open to the public, entitled "Susan Glaspell and Friends." The program including two short plays by Glaspell, and one each by Djuna Barnes and Edna Ferber. The acoustics were not optimal, and one short part had to be re-recorded, but the result is still a fairly good reflection of the night's readings. They will be release...

On July 30, 2024, New Athens Players presented a night of readers' theater, open to the public, entitled "Susan Glaspell and Friends." The program including two short plays by Glaspell, and one each by Djuna Barnes and Edna Ferber. The acoustics were not optimal, and one short part had to be re-recorded, but the result is still a fairly good reflection of the night's readings. They will be release...

On July 30, 2024, New Athens Players presented a night of readers' theater, open to the public, entitled "Susan Glaspell and Friends." The program including two short plays by Glaspell, and one each by Djuna Barnes and Edna Ferber. The acoustics were not optimal, and one short part had to be re-recorded, but the result is still a fairly good reflection of the night's readings. They will be release...

On July 30, 2024, New Athens Players presented a night of readers' theater, open to the public, entitled "Susan Glaspell and Friends." The program including two short plays by Glaspell, and one each by Djuna Barnes and Edna Ferber. The acoustics were not optimal, and one short part had to be re-recorded, but the result is still a fairly good reflection of the night's readings. Th...

In "A Matter of Gesture," Susan Glaspell turns her human empathy and critical eye on a character embroiled in the radical politics of the bohemian circles Glaspell was familiar with: the world of Max Eastman, John Reed, The Masses , and the IWW. The character's last name, "Ruhl," will be familiar to residents of Davenport and its environs, especially because of a locally pr...

Susan Glaspell's story looks at isolation and interconnectedness both in the practice of farming and in human relationships. Young Ira Mead is at first sufficiently described by others in the following terms: “If you don’t say anything to him, he won’t say anything to you.” Over the years, the very corn he plants, experiments with, and wins prizes with, brings him to a place of deeper understa...

Susan Glaspell re-wrote the story of her most famous one-act play, Trifles (first performed in 1916), for publication as a short story. This is a tale of mystery, set in the aftermath of the murder of John Wright, as his widow Minnie is being held in prison on suspicion of the murder of her husband. The situtation is based on a true incident Glaspell had reported on in Des Moines. Glaspell's t...

This was one of Susan Glaspell's very early stories, one she published in Drake University's newspaper, "The Delphic," in December 1903; it was reprinted four years later in "The Speaker," in September 1907, clearly because of shortness and its heart-warming character as a holiday piece. One of her slightly later stories, "For Love of the Hills" (appearing in...

Susan Glaspell's fictionalized account of a real controversy in 1910 Davenport over censorship and free speech, over the question whether a particular book ought to be purchased by the local library, raises (and satirizes) issues that are still with us today. The real book behind the scandal was G. B. Foster's "The Finality of the Christian Religion" -- and Glaspell herself was v...

The versatile writer and journalist Floyd Dell (1887-1969) was a good friend of Susan Glaspell and George Cram Cook. He became acquainted with them in the Davenport, Iowa, area before moving to Chicago for a few years, where he wrote for the Friday Literary Review of the Chicago Evening Post, and afterwards heading out to the East coast -- a short time before they did too. All three were active wi...

In this story, Susan Glaspell asks her readers to ponder the true nature of success and failure, and what it is that really makes a life worth living and looking back on with satisfaction. It was originally published in the first number of "The Liberator" (March 1918), a magazine founded by Max and Crystal Eastman as a successor to "The Masses."

The versatile writer and journalist Floyd Dell (1887-1969) was a good friend of Susan Glaspell and George Cram Cook. He became acquainted with them in the Davenport, Iowa, area before moving to Chicago for a few years, where he wrote for the Friday Literary Review of the Chicago Evening Post, and afterwards heading out to the East coast -- a short time before they did too. All three were active wi...

"The Resurrection and the Life," in which Susan Glaspell explores the meaning of love, life, loss, and death, was originally published in "The Smart Set" (Sept. 1913). It is narrated here by Ann Boaden.

The versatile writer and journalist Floyd Dell (1887-1969) was a good friend of Susan Glaspell and George Cram Cook. He became acquainted with them in the Davenport, Iowa, area before moving to Chicago for a few years, where he wrote for the Friday Literary Review of the Chicago Evening Post, and afterwards heading out to the East coast -- a short time before they did too. All three were active wi...

Susan Glaspell's challenging play, described as expressionist and experimental, was originally produced by the Provincetown Players in 1921. It presents Claire Archer's uncompromising pursuit of new forms in the cultivation of plants, her seemingly impossible quest for self-fulfillment in the face of society's insistence on utility and conformity. It is a powerful expression of feminis...

Susan Glaspell's challenging play, described as expressionist and experimental, was originally produced by the Provincetown Players in 1921. It presents Claire Archer's uncompromising pursuit of new forms in the cultivation of plants, her seemingly impossible quest for self-fulfillment in the face of society's insistence on utility and conformity. It is a powerful expression of feminis...