As part of our expanding LAPAA Initiative signing a spotlight on Local Artists, Performers, Artisans, and Authors, we are proud to be hosting a Staged Reading of A Shadow of Her Own, an original musical by Joseph J. Corso Jr.
ABOUT THE SHOW:
A Shadow of Her Own is a fictional account of the mudslinging and corruption of the 1896 U. S. Presidential election played out in New York City. It enacts a feminist manifesto aimed at male chauvinism, misogyny and sexual abuse, especially in journalistic circles. The main characters are Lucian Dan Cody and Ellen Bayne Collins, loosely based on aspects of the lives of writer/journalist Ambrose Bierce (1842-c.1914) and investigative journalist/author Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane, 1864-1922). Ambrose Bierce was the sardonic journalist/fabulist and short story writer once employed by William Randolph Hearst and author of the caustically misogynistic The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906). He worked for Hearst at the San Francisco Examiner, which published Bierce's most famous and frequently anthologized short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" on July 13, 1890. He also worked for Hearst in New York City and Washington, D. C. until 1909. Bierce was a "bitter" critic of religion, politics, women and marriage. Elizabeth Cochrane was the intrepid journalist who worked for Joseph Pulitzer and practiced early investigative reporting, taking an undercover assignment (feigning insanity) to expose abuses in the New York City Women’s Lunatic Asylum in 1887. Bly's article, "Ten Days in a Madhouse," caused a sensation and resulted in needed reforms. Two years later, she traveled around the world alone (covering nearly 25,000 miles) from November 14, 1889 until 72 days later, breaking Jules Verne's fictional 80 days by Phileas Fogg. She even interviewed Verne in France. Elizabeth was an early example of American female independence, fearlessness and achievements in a hostile man's world.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Joseph J. Corso, Jr. has been involved with American Musical Theater as both a writer of librettos and teacher for Elderhostel/Road Scholar programs offered in New York and California from 1998 through 2019. In the 1970s he worked with the New Hyde Park Players in Nassau County as a sometime actor, librettist and songwriter. In 1976 he appeared in the Player’s production of 1776, and wrote the libretto to Washington: a Man and His Country, in a collaboration with Marilyn McClean, composer, pianist and Director of the Player’s production. That experience prompted Corso to join the New School’s Workshop for Writing Musicals between 1976 and 1981, under the guidance of Aaron Frankel (Director and author) and Ken Jacobson (Composer). In the Fall of 1980, Corso first met composer Evelyn Durso who joined the workshop. They began a collaboration on Canaan’s Children, a musical version of Mark Twain’s novel, Huckleberry Finn. In the midst of their collaboration, Marilyn McClean suggested to them that if they created an original musical the New Hyde Player’s would produce it in their 1982 season. The libretto for A Shadow of Her Own, with music by Evelyn Durso, was the result, produced in June 1982. Now, some 42 years later, Corso has reconstructed and reedited Shadow’s libretto, while staying true to Evelyn Durso’s music. Sadly, Evelyn passed away in 2009. Corso believes that their Shadow musical can resonate with women who continue to struggle, seeking equality and recognition in both lite and the professional workplace still dominated by men.
For Tickets, call the Box Office at 631-218-2810 or visit:
https://www.cmpac.com/shows/ashadowofherown/
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- Next month, 11th July, 07:30 pm, All That Matters, an Original Play by Michael Livoti in Oakdale
- Next month, 12th July, 10:30 am, CM Family Theatre Presents: Junie B. Jones, The Musical in Oakdale
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