ΣPAR@ ` dTEXT ` VDraper, Ruth1884╨1956monologistBorn on December 2, 1884, in New York City, Ruth Draper was of a well-to-do family and was a granddaughter of Charles A. Dana, editor of the New York Sun. She was educated privately. Her career grew from a habit of writing sketches about persons she knew or had observed and performing them at parties. In 1911 she began performing professionally at clubs and schools. She appeared at the Neighborhood Playhouse in 1915 and in 1916 made her only appearance in a full-length play, A Lady╒s Name, at the Maxine Elliott Theatre. In 1917 Draper made her New York debut as a monologist in a program of one-act pieces, all of which were failures except for the one she had written entitled The Actress. She thereafter performed only her own material. (Henry James once wrote a monologue for her that she is said never to have used.) In 1918 she spent several months in France entertaining American troops. Her London debut at Aeolian Hall in 1920 in a bill of her own works was a great success and established her as the preeminent practitioner of her art. An extensive tour of the United States in 1924╨1928 was punctuated by a command performance before King George V at Windsor Castle in 1926. In 1928╨1929 she played 18 consecutive weeks at the Comedy Theater in New York. She made several highly successful foreign tours in the 1930s and 1940s between engagements in the United States and Great Britain. Draper╒s monologues and monodramas were delicately crafted works that revealed a deep understanding of human character, conveyed with great skill and deft suggestion. She used a minimum of stage props, no scenery, and virtually nothing in the way of costume or makeup change, yet she could people the stage at will. Her repertory eventually grew to 39 pieces with such titles as ╥Three Generations at a Court of Domestic Relations,╙ ╥At an English House Party,╙ ╥The Miner╒s Wife,╙ ╥A French Dressmaker,╙ ╥Opening a Bazaar,╙ ╥In County Kerry,╙ ╥The Italian Lesson,╙ ╥At an Art Exhibition,╙ and ╥Vive La France.╙ In them she conjured up some 58 principal characters, endowing each with full individuality. A command of languages and dialects played a large part in her characterizations as well. Her final performance was on December 26, 1956, at the Playhouse Theatre in New York City. She died in New York on December 30, 1956. Nstyl ` ! ¬ 5¬ 5¬ # !I ░ !I ╝ !I !I !I !I ▐ + !I 7 5¬ 8 !I ╓ !I ß !I « 5¬ » !I link ` HYPR +
