The Sculptress
PREMIERE
Fells Point Corner Theatre, Baltimore MD, July 8–31, 2011. Directed by Juliana Avery, with Karin Rosnizeck, Stefan Aleksander, Yagmur Muftuoglu, David Shoemaker, Ellie Nicoll and Eve Carlson.
SYNOPSIS
(Historical note: Camille Claudel, a gifted sculptor and the mistress of Auguste Rodin, was committed to an asylum by her mother and brother eight days after her father’s death in 1913, when she was 48.)
It’s January 1935, and in rural France, sculptor and former Rodin protegee Camille Claudel languishes in the asylum to which her brother Paul—now a prominent ambassador—committed her 20 years before. Camille has suddenly begun clamoring to meet the young Spanish surrealist artist Remedios Varo, whose work she’s seen in magazines. When Paul reluctantly arranges for the fiery young female painter to visit his sister, what unfolds is a story about the power of friendship, the fine line between eccentricity and madness, and the wars that rage within and around us. Running time: 2 hours. Cast: 4 women, 2 men.
PHOTOS
Clockwise from left: Karin Rosnizeck as Camille and Stefan Aleksander as Paul; Karin with Yagmur Muftuoglu as Remedios Varo; Stefan and Yagmur. Photos by Ken Stanek. Poster by Natalia Love.
“Accomplished and mature”
—J. Wynn Rousuck, Maryland Morning, National Public Radio
“Millstone has done her art-historical homework and written an intellectually engaging play…It is a character study that is moving.”
—Mike Giuliano,
The Baltimore Sun
