During a 1902 interview Grace Livingston Furniss related how she got started. "We were living out at Bergen Point, N. J. ... We were quite a dramatic colony. There was a lot of us who pursued amateur theatricals eagerly. I wanted a certain kind of play to play in myself, which I couldn't find anywhere. I wanted certain larky business in it – a pillow fight on the stage and a burlesque melodrama. I wrote the ‘Box on Monkeys,' which we produced with great eclat for the benefit of our admiring friends and relatives. Then I sold it to a New York publication for a story. I had no idea what was in it, but the entire edition sold out on the strength of it, and then it was snapped up and put on the stage, and has been played ever since, and that was seven years ago. Of course, I never got a cent out it as a play; but just then I joined the Twelfth Night Club, and met Martha Morton, who was the first of our American women playwrights, I think. She said to me, ‘Why don't you write for the real stage?' I replied that I didn't know enough. She encouraged me, and that, together with the success of the ‘Box of Monkeys,' was what made me think seriously of writing for the stage." As the interview continued she addressed the issue of the advantage of men over women in writing plays and chastised men for their attitudes toward women playwrights.
In a 1907 interview with Ada Peterson, Grace Furniss said that her mother had encouraged her to write and then submit her work for publication. She received $45 for her first two act play, A Box of Monkeys, which was sent to Harper's. Her playlet The Angel was written for a Chicago competition and almost won her the prize.
She felt that her early attempts at writing were not successful because of her inexperience, ignorance of technique and her lack of knowledge of the practical side of the stage. Abby Sage Richardson aided her in developing her skill in writing plays for production. She felt her success was due to learning about what went on behind the scenes. She climbed the gridiron to see what went on below and watched plays from the wings and front to she why they were a success or failure.
Grace Livingston Furniss was an early believer in women's rights. She felt that "There is no reason why women should not be as successful in writing plays as men are ... but they lack what men have had, opportunity. ...We have all heard the argument that women are incapable of writing a big play. ... I do not believe this. ... Playwriting is not evidence of genius. It is a knack, a gift. Persons, men and women alike, are born with it. ... There is only one reason, in our time when women are able to make homes for themselves, why a woman should marry, that is love. ... The secret of success in playwriting is the secret of success in anything: concentration. I learned to lay aside sex in my transactions with managers. I expected no concession from them because I was a woman. ... I don't think there is any objection to women as playwrights. the objection is to incompetent playwrights of either sex. ... Men and women are growing more and more alike, even in playwriting."
In a 1907 interview with Ada Peterson, Grace Furniss said that her mother had encouraged her to write and then submit her work for publication. She received $45 for her first two act play, A Box of Monkeys, which was sent to Harper's. Her playlet The Angel was written for a Chicago competition and almost won her the prize.
She felt that her early attempts at writing were not successful because of her inexperience, ignorance of technique and her lack of knowledge of the practical side of the stage. Abby Sage Richardson aided her in developing her skill in writing plays for production. She felt her success was due to learning about what went on behind the scenes. She climbed the gridiron to see what went on below and watched plays from the wings and front to she why they were a success or failure.
Grace Livingston Furniss was an early believer in women's rights. She felt that "There is no reason why women should not be as successful in writing plays as men are ... but they lack what men have had, opportunity. ...We have all heard the argument that women are incapable of writing a big play. ... I do not believe this. ... Playwriting is not evidence of genius. It is a knack, a gift. Persons, men and women alike, are born with it. ... There is only one reason, in our time when women are able to make homes for themselves, why a woman should marry, that is love. ... The secret of success in playwriting is the secret of success in anything: concentration. I learned to lay aside sex in my transactions with managers. I expected no concession from them because I was a woman. ... I don't think there is any objection to women as playwrights. the objection is to incompetent playwrights of either sex. ... Men and women are growing more and more alike, even in playwriting."
During a 1902 interview Grace Livingston Furniss related how she got started. "We were living out at Bergen Point, N. J. ... We were quite a dramatic colony. There was a lot of us who pursued amateur theatricals eagerly. I wanted a certain kind of play to play in myself, which I couldn't find anywhere. I wanted certain larky business in it – a pillow fight on the stage and a burlesque melodrama. I wrote the ‘Box on Monkeys,' which we produced with great eclat for the benefit of our admiring friends and relatives. Then I sold it to a New York publication for a story. I had no idea what was in it, but the entire edition sold out on the strength of it, and then it was snapped up and put on the stage, and has been played ever since, and that was seven years ago. Of course, I never got a cent out it as a play; but just then I joined the Twelfth Night Club, and met Martha Morton, who was the first of our American women playwrights, I think. She said to me, ‘Why don't you write for the real stage?' I replied that I didn't know enough. She encouraged me, and that, together with the success of the ‘Box of Monkeys,' was what made me think seriously of writing for the stage." As the interview continued she addressed the issue of the advantage of men over women in writing plays and chastised men for their attitudes toward women playwrights.
In a 1907 interview with Ada Peterson, Grace Furniss said that her mother had encouraged her to write and then submit her work for publication. She received $45 for her first two act play, A Box of Monkeys, which was sent to Harper's. Her playlet The Angel was written for a Chicago competition and almost won her the prize.
She felt that her early attempts at writing were not successful because of her inexperience, ignorance of technique and her lack of knowledge of the practical side of the stage. Abby Sage Richardson aided her in developing her skill in writing plays for production. She felt her success was due to learning about what went on behind the scenes. She climbed the gridiron to see what went on below and watched plays from the wings and front to she why they were a success or failure.
Grace Livingston Furniss was an early believer in women's rights. She felt that "There is no reason why women should not be as successful in writing plays as men are ... but they lack what men have had, opportunity. ...We have all heard the argument that women are incapable of writing a big play. ... I do not believe this. ... Playwriting is not evidence of genius. It is a knack, a gift. Persons, men and women alike, are born with it. ... There is only one reason, in our time when women are able to make homes for themselves, why a woman should marry, that is love. ... The secret of success in playwriting is the secret of success in anything: concentration. I learned to lay aside sex in my transactions with managers. I expected no concession from them because I was a woman. ... I don't think there is any objection to women as playwrights. the objection is to incompetent playwrights of either sex. ... Men and women are growing more and more alike, even in playwriting."
In a 1907 interview with Ada Peterson, Grace Furniss said that her mother had encouraged her to write and then submit her work for publication. She received $45 for her first two act play, A Box of Monkeys, which was sent to Harper's. Her playlet The Angel was written for a Chicago competition and almost won her the prize.
She felt that her early attempts at writing were not successful because of her inexperience, ignorance of technique and her lack of knowledge of the practical side of the stage. Abby Sage Richardson aided her in developing her skill in writing plays for production. She felt her success was due to learning about what went on behind the scenes. She climbed the gridiron to see what went on below and watched plays from the wings and front to she why they were a success or failure.
Grace Livingston Furniss was an early believer in women's rights. She felt that "There is no reason why women should not be as successful in writing plays as men are ... but they lack what men have had, opportunity. ...We have all heard the argument that women are incapable of writing a big play. ... I do not believe this. ... Playwriting is not evidence of genius. It is a knack, a gift. Persons, men and women alike, are born with it. ... There is only one reason, in our time when women are able to make homes for themselves, why a woman should marry, that is love. ... The secret of success in playwriting is the secret of success in anything: concentration. I learned to lay aside sex in my transactions with managers. I expected no concession from them because I was a woman. ... I don't think there is any objection to women as playwrights. the objection is to incompetent playwrights of either sex. ... Men and women are growing more and more alike, even in playwriting."
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