438:, Bland returned to her early interest in the Southern highlanders of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Sixteen-year-old Hessie lives with her mother on hardscrabble mountain land, which is difficult to farm without a man. Her ma wants her to marry a young widower with adjoining bottom land, but Hessie is reluctant. Her teacher has instilled in her a love of learning, and she longs to get away to a different life where she can pursue higher education. She is desolate at the thought of settling down with an uneducated man in a monotonous and brutal existence. Her old granny is sympathetic to her plight and helps her get away to a new life. The theme of young people yearning to escape the isolation of the high mountains is recurrent in Bland's Appalachian folk dramas.
415:, a play about an incident in a small Southern town. The time is 1928. An aging Confederate veteran is prevented from marching in a reunion parade with his buddies by his officious daughter-in-law, on grounds that he is too old and weak to march. He is bitterly disappointed. But some young people tell the mayor of the town that the old man has been denied his fondest wish, whereupon the mayor invites him to ride in the official car, ahead of everyone else. After some delays in starting the parade, his final words show his pride in his service to the South during the Civil War. "Let 'em wait. Ain't they holding up this whole confounded parade for me? Me, that was first at
291:. Based on a true story, it concerns a young mountain woman who had been deserted by her husband and who had reluctantly accepted the proposal of a new suitor. Haunted by memories of her fugitive spouse, she spends her wedding night staring at candles she has lighted in the vain hope of welcoming him back home. Produced and published in 1927, the drama was performed a number of times by the Playmakers in succeeding years.
31:
378:
Stepmother to two girls, Sallie and Julia, and mother to two children of her own, Edith and Frank Jr., she not only managed a busy domestic household but continued to write and publish plays and poems under her maiden name. She also served on the faculty of nearby Agnes Scott
College, her alma mater,
581:
to spiritual enlightenment. The tenor of the 1970s seems to have markedly intensified her lifelong interest in
American politics. Bemoaning her perception that she was the only Democrat in her retirement home, she missed no opportunity to broadcast her party affiliation. In the winter of 1972, while
304:
wrote, "Its characters, instead of being stereotyped or standardized as such too often have been, are true
Southern highlanders, not only in speech and manner but in the doings of mind and heart--they are individuals all." Frederick Koch, founder and director of the Carolina Playmakers, said of the
370:
In 1930, Margaret Bland left Yale Drama School, returned to the South, and married Frank
Anderson Sewell, a widowed insurance executive with two daughters. Family lore says that he had pursued her unsuccessfully before she left for New Haven, but then eventually appeared there carrying an almost
361:
and an accomplished
Francophone, Margaret Bland made her first trip to France. She would return often throughout her life, sometimes staying for extended periods. She usually spent most of her time in Paris, studying subtleties of the language and the structure of dramatic literature.
529:
New York: Vantage Press. A self-published collection of poems, organized into sections for sonnets, ballades, triolets, haiku, lyrics, free verse in dialect, and narrative poetry. The poems range from "A Student's Sonnet Cycle" (1918/19) to "Though the Old House Must Fall"
250:. Stimulated by the liberal arts curriculum and the creative atmosphere of the campus, Bland began to work on her first plays and to write poems. After graduating in 1920, she pursued her interest in playwriting through studies in the Department of Dramatic Arts of the
206:
Margaret Bland spent her childhood at the family home in
Charlotte and was educated in the Charlotte public schools, where her burgeoning interest in dramatic literature and her fluency in French began to develop. She spent school vacations in a rustic inn in
326:, in 1928. Also based on characters living in a remote area of the Blue Ridge Mountains, it concerns a teenage girl who yearns for a pink dress and a society woman from the outside world who brings her an old, patched garment as a present. The
344:
but original and by no means badly conceived or executed." It was frequently performed, mostly by school groups, for several decades after it was first published. In 1960, it was the inspiration for a short musical play,
190:, and others were Episcopalian. All were Democrats. Margaret Clarkson was born and raised in Charlotte, where she was educated in local schools. She was a member of the first graduating class of the prestigious
601:
Cecilia Moore, "A Model for Folk
Theatre: The Carolina Playmakers" The Gladys Hall Coates University History Lecture, delivered at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 8 April 2014. Online:
565:, to be near her daughter Edith and stepdaughter Sallie. She wrote no more plays, but she continued to write poems, remaining mentally acute and intellectually curious well into her late 90s. The
179:
and its sea islands. In one artillery exchange, he was wounded by the explosion of a mortar shell. In recognition of his bravery under fire, he was later promoted to the rank of captain.
194:
in 1884. Fifty years later, she gave a welcoming address to the graduating class of 1934 explaining why "Female" was no longer in the current name of the college, Queens-Chicora (now
888:
868:
175:, at the age of sixteen. In his later re-enlistment he joined the Palmetto Guard of Charleston, a company of the Second South Carolina Infantry, and fought in
586:. When a police officer tried to prevent her from crossing an intersection, she brandished her walking stick and cried, "You can't stop me. I am a Democrat!"
143:
in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Her father, Mortimer
Alberto Bland, was a descendant of an ancient English family known in the West Riding of
375:, her favorite poet, which apparently convinced her to marry him. They were married at her mother's home in Charlotte and eventually settled in Atlanta.
873:
878:
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in the South. As a socially conscious person, she was dedicated to working with black
Americans to help them overcome obstacles in the
388:
104:(November 24, 1898 – March 21, 1996) was an American playwright and poet who participated in the Playmakers Folk Drama movement at the
671:
From a photocopy of the original handwritten copy of the speech, in the Bland-Sewell Family
Archives, private collection, Somers, N.Y.
309:
that "much of the conversation the author has remembered and cherished for us in this play." Rodney Crowther, in an article in the
30:
828:
Anecdote recorded by Frank A. Sewell Jr., 18 February 1972, in the Bland-Sewell Family Archives, private collection, Somers, N.Y.
400:
315:, wrote that "Margaret Bland had accomplished something comparable in beauty to many of the same sort of brief studies for which
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279:
At the University of North Carolina, Margaret Bland became an active member of the Carolina Playmakers, now known as the
392:
208:
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224:
160:
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231:, and an active member of the Episcopal church. It was in Little Switzerland that Bland made friends with local
195:
383:, the Romanian-French playwright who was one of the foremost figures of the avant-garde Parisian theater, the
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where she taught classes in both playwriting and French. For a time, she conducted independent research on
280:
220:
219:. The inn and the community had been founded by her uncle Heriot Clarkson in 1910. He was a justice of the
105:
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The Clarksons, her mother's family, were prominent in both North and South Carolina, being descended from
135:, had ancestors from both England and France. Her mother, Margaret Simons Clarkson, was a descendant of
191:
172:
73:
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Bland's father, Mortimer Bland, was a dentist and businessman in Charlotte, North Carolina. A staunch
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in the early part of the twentieth century. The UNC program, which produced such prominent writers as
789:
Annual Report of the President of Agnes Scott College to the Board of Trustees, 20 May 1952. Online:
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50:
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235:(Southern highlanders) and became acquainted with some of their stories, folkways, and dialects of
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349:, written by Mark Bucci and David Rogers and published in an acting edition by Samuel French.
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was an immediate success, winning a prize in an international competition in New York City.
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462:, vol. 33, no. 4 (Decatur, Ga.: Agnes Scott College, Division of Student Affairs), p. 196.
8:
719:, no byline, c.1930, in the Bland-Sewell Family Archives, private collection Somers, N.Y.
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Two of Margaret Bland's later plays were particularly successful. In 1935, she published
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619:(1928), Southern Classics Series (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1999).
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Siege Train: The Journal of a Confederate Artilleryman in the Defense of Charleston,
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1927. Belasco Little Theater Tournament for one of the four best unpublished plays,
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336:
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697:(1928), Images of America Series (Mount Pleasant, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, 2010).
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Faculty rosters, college records, 1930-1960, McCain Library, Agnes Scott College.
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A Pretty One-Act Play for Children. Franklin, Ohio: Eldridge Entertainment House.
396:
372:
300:
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771:, c.1928, in the Bland-Sewell Family Archives, private collection, Somers, N.Y.
745:, c.1928, in the Bland-Sewell Family Archives, private collection, Somers, N.Y
659:
632:(Fredericksburg, Va.: Sergeant Kirkland's Museum and Historical Society, 1994)
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through Thomas Boston Clarkson (1809-1879) of Charleston. Some Clarksons were
837:
583:
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Records in the Bland-Sewell Family Archives, private collection, Somers, NY.
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1972. Second Prize for the Pen and Brush Pat Davis Memorial Prize for Poetry
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out walking, she encountered a motorcade for visiting Republican president
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391:. Later in life, as a member of the Executive Committee of the biracial
387:. She was also actively affiliated with the Alliance Française and the
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144:
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473:, edited by Frederick H. Koch. New York: Henry Holt, pp. 161–168.
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604:
http://library.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/2014.moore.pdf
327:
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The Drama Workshop in Atlanta performed a three-act version of
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edited by Warren Ripley (Charleston Historical Society, 1996),
522:
A Comedy-Drama in One Act. New York and London: Samuel French.
340:, called it "an imaginative thing, a little overburdened with
262:(then the Department of Drama in the School of Fine Arts), in
543:
1925. Society Prize of the Poetry Society of South Carolina
449:
The Poets of the Future: A College Anthology for 1918-1920
254:, specializing in one-act plays. She eventually earned a
501:
A Comedy in One Act. New York and London: Samuel French.
630:
A History of the 2nd South Carolina Infantry, 1861-1865
139:(French Protestants) who immigrated from France to the
889:
David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University alumni
806:(New York and London: Samuel French, 1935), pp. 29-30.
480:
A Play in One Act. New York and London: Samuel French.
791:
https://archive.org/details/annualreportpr1952622wall
540:
1925. Poetry Prize in the Agnes Scott Alumnae Contest
561:
Some years after retiring, Margaret Sewell moved to
869:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni
835:
684:(Richmond, Va.: Whittet & Shepperson, 1982).
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508:A Play in One Act. Boston: Walter H. Baker Co.
487:Franklin, Ohio: Eldridge Entertainment House.
116:, was an influential component of the wider
819:(New York and London: Samuel French, 1951).
660:http://www.newspaper.com/newspaper/66362888
455:. Boston: Stratford Co. Publishers, p. 164.
357:In the late 1920s, having become a devoted
252:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
201:
82:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
395:, she became active in efforts to promote
389:American Association of Teachers of French
35:Margaret Bland, from the 1927 yearbook of
29:
874:American women dramatists and playwrights
258:degree. In 1929-1930, she studied at the
617:The Huguenots of Colonial South Carolina
569:of Honolulu kindled her appreciation of
319:in his short stories became so famous."
879:Writers of American Southern literature
283:. Her first notable work was a one-act
854:Writers from Charlotte, North Carolina
836:
894:Queens University of Charlotte alumni
732:(New York: Henry Holt, 1928), p. xxv.
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298:in 1930, of which a reviewer in the
864:20th-century American women writers
859:American dramatists and playwrights
693:Chris Hollifield and David Biddix,
515:New York and London: Samuel French.
13:
393:Georgia Council on Human Relations
322:Bland wrote another one-act play,
269:
242:After high school, Bland attended
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730:Carolina Folk-Plays, Third Series
492:The Princess Who Could Not Dance.
471:Carolina Folk-Plays: Third Series
211:, a resort community high in the
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809:
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756:The Story of Little Switzerland
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682:The Story of Little Switzerland
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147:since the thirteenth century.
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246:, a small school for women in
196:Queens University of Charlotte
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658:, 21 September 1922. Online:
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556:
366:Married life and later career
95:Playwright, dramatist, writer
281:PlayMakers Repertory Company
221:North Carolina Supreme Court
150:
106:University of North Carolina
16:American playwright and poet
7:
123:
10:
910:
884:Agnes Scott College alumni
654:Mortimer Bland, obituary,
192:Charlotte Female Institute
173:Lincolnton, North Carolina
74:Charlotte Female Institute
133:Charlotte, North Carolina
91:
69:
57:
51:Charlotte, North Carolina
43:
28:
21:
728:Frederick H. Koch, ed.,
431:" as the curtain falls.
202:Early life and education
527:Shadows of Things Past.
129:Margaret Clarkson Bland
118:Little Theatre Movement
656:Lincolnton County News
264:New Haven, Connecticut
217:western North Carolina
506:The Spinach Spitters.
458:1924. "My Years." In
385:Theatre of the Absurd
227:, an advocate of the
177:defense of Charleston
171:, having enlisted at
579:Noble Eightfold Path
453:Henry T. Schnittkind
447:1920. "My Song." In
260:Yale School of Drama
213:Blue Ridge Mountains
86:Yale School of Drama
427:." The band plays "
256:Master of Fine Arts
244:Agnes Scott College
237:Appalachian English
229:Good Roads Movement
184:Scottish immigrants
165:Confederate veteran
78:Agnes Scott College
37:Agnes Scott College
767:Clipping from the
741:Clipping from the
715:Clipping from the
695:Little Switzerland
641:Edward Manigault,
615:Arthur H. Hirsch,
571:Asian philosophies
401:voter registration
371:life-size bust of
347:A Pink Party Dress
233:Appalachian people
209:Little Switzerland
169:American Civil War
743:Asheville Citizen
535:Awards and honors
520:Land and Larnin'.
478:Pink and Patches.
332:Richard Lockridge
317:Guy de Maupassant
312:Asheville Citizen
223:, a proponent of
141:Carolina colonies
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47:November 24, 1898
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815:Margaret Bland,
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802:Margaret Bland,
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567:multiculturalism
563:Honolulu, Hawaii
548:Pink and Patches
499:First at Bethel.
436:Land and Larnin'
337:The New York Sun
324:Pink and Patches
248:Decatur, Georgia
163:, he was also a
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758:(1982), p. 104.
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467:Lighted Candles
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413:First at Bethel
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397:racial equality
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307:Lighted Candles
301:Atlanta Journal
296:Lighted Candles
289:Lighted Candles
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270:Literary career
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70:Alma mater
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381:Eugène Ionesco
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102:Margaret Bland
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65:(aged 97)
61:March 21, 1996
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23:Margaret Bland
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754:Louisa Duls,
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680:Louisa Duls,
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628:Mac Wyckoff,
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451:, edited by
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434:In 1951, in
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353:Francophilia
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323:
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305:dialogue in
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188:Presbyterian
181:
159:and a loyal
157:Episcopalian
154:
128:
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114:Thomas Wolfe
101:
100:
63:(1996-03-21)
849:1996 deaths
844:1898 births
407:Later plays
359:Francophile
275:Early plays
225:prohibition
838:Categories
590:References
557:Retirement
421:Gettysburg
285:folk drama
131:, born in
110:Paul Green
425:Appomatox
403:process.
287:entitled
151:Parentage
145:Yorkshire
137:Huguenots
577:and its
575:Buddhism
161:Democrat
124:Ancestry
530:(1972).
513:Jinsey.
342:dialect
167:of the
525:1984.
518:1951.
511:1943.
504:1935.
497:1935.
490:1929.
483:1929.
476:1928.
465:1927.
460:Aurora
417:Bethel
328:comedy
469:. In
429:Dixie
373:Dante
112:and
58:Died
44:Born
215:of
198:).
840::
266:.
239:.
793:.
662:.
606:.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
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